International Studies Compendium Project

Extract

Comment on this article   The issue of gender and security at the turn of the twenty-first century provides a study in contrasts and even contradictions. The USA is exporting a “democracy” agenda that overtly includes the promotion of “women's dignity,” while having presided over a nation-building process that has resulted in a decline in human rights and physical security for women and men alike. Meanwhile, other UN member states frequently deploy soldiers trained to kill – an activity conventionally associated with masculinity – to conflict zones where they are expected to “keep the peace” – an activity conventionally associated with femininity. Some of these same soldiers sent ostensibly to protect “women and children” have preyed upon civilians in conflict zones worldwide, undermining both the stability and support operations they are meant to assist and the image of their governments abroad and the international institutions they serve. In 2000, the United Nations Security Council passed a landmark resolution, UNSC 1325, calling on member states to adopt a “gender perspective” in national, international, and regional security institutions. This marked a fundamental shift in the global security agenda from “hard” security concerns to a “human security” agenda. Yet the very rhetoric of women's rights was then used to justify a war and occupation that arguably undermines the ... log in or subscribe to read full text