Paper Titles & Abstracts

Gender consequences of EU military and security governance. EU's Security and defense policy (ESDP) is an example of the expansion of EU competence and of EU institution building. Scholars have argued that the EU is a civilian and a normative power in international affairs. Thus, it could be expected that a different defense and military governance than we have been used to, would emerge in the context of EU, perhaps more influenced by civilian norms. It is particularly interesting to explore this because defense and security governance in the EU developed within an institutional setting where gender policies and gender mainstreaming strategies were already firmly in place. Institutions related to security, defense and military matters have a long history of association with masculinity and male bodies. Security institutions organize and materialize gender relations but they are seldom straightforward and paradoxically, when masculinity is normative it is often invisible. Gender mainstreaming is a soft law instrument and policy strategy that has as its aim to make visible gendered practices in context like this. From this perspective the article critically studies how gender has been conceptualized and organized in the development and institutionalization of ESDP with a specific focus on peacekeeping operations and the Battlegroups