Militarization

The Militarization of Opulence: Engendering a Conflict Heritage Site

Citation:

Demetriou, Olga. 2012. “The Militarization of Opulence: Engendering a Conflict Heritage Site.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 14 (1): 56–77. doi:10.1080/14616742.2011.631286.

Author: Olga Demetriou

Abstract:

This article investigates the processes through which a site, thought to encapsulate the history of the Cyprus conflict, has been militarized in multiple ways. Defined as a site of negotiation since its opening, Ledra Palace Hotel has instead been a place where conflict has diachronically persisted. The masculinization and militarization of this environment is addressed within a gender-focused analysis that emphasizes the normalization of violence. This approach reveals the political potential of acknowledging conflict dynamics hitherto obfuscated by hegemonic conceptualizations of ‘the conflict’.

Keywords: Cyprus buffer zone, development, gender in conflict, Subjectivity

Topics: Gender, Women, Masculinity/ies, Gender Analysis, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Violence Regions: Europe, Southern Europe Countries: Cyprus

Year: 2012

Learning in a Militarized Context: Exploring Afghan Women’s Experiences of Higher Education in ‘Post-Conflict’ Afghanistan

Citation:

Akseer, Spogmai. “Learning in a Militarized Context: Exploring Afghan Women’s Experiences of Higher Education in ‘Post-Conflict’ Afghanistan.” PhD diss., University of Toronto, 2015.

Author: Spogmai Akseer

Abstract:

This study examines the repercussions of the war on terror and subsequent occupation of Afghanistan, on the daily (gendered) life experiences of Afghan women. I argue that such wars are markers of the shifts in global capitalist accumulation processes, from exporting ‘goods’ to the Global South, to now exporting capitalism. Specifically, the war on terror is the latest manifestation of monopoly finance capitalism, which leverages wars and insecurity in the Global South as lucrative sites for accumulating profits and (re)investments. Democratic ideals provide a ‘moral’ justification for mass militarism, human rights violations, torture and erosion of existing social and economic inequalities. Notions of freedom, equality or classlessness, which are important objectives of formal democracy, as well, colonialist and racist ideologies of Others have become effective mechanisms forcapitalism to sustain and reproduce capitalist class relations. Education is an important site for socializing citizens toward accepting and participating as human capital in monopoly finance capitalism. Through the World Bank, higher education reforms in Afghanistan are endorsing neoliberal policies, even as these policies continue to contradict and exacerbate existing inequalities. Specifically, female education has become a key strategy in continued militarization and occupation in the country.
 
In this study, I examine the contradictory ways in which female university students navigate through an increasingly militarized, violent and patriarchal terrain. Guided by a transnational feminist approach and a dialectical historical materialist framework, 19 female university students from 5 public and private universities were interviewed in Afghanistan. Findings suggest that the university is a contradictory site where participants mobilize new and old strategies for addressing gendered constraints in their lives, while simultaneously creating new ones. The implications of these findings suggest a need for extensive institutional and ideological support for women’s learning, and also improving home-school connections. The participants’ desire to learn and their concerns over increasing violence and insecurity, reveal the militarized nature of their learning, as well, the possibility for critical and transformative learning against imperialism, patriarchy and class relations.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Education, Gender, Women, Men, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Livelihoods, Militarized Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2015

Between the Home and the World in Violent Conflict

Citation:

Pieris, Anoma. 2012. “Between the Home and the World in Violent Conflict.” Gender, Place & Culture 19 (6): 771–89.

Author: Anoma Pieris

Abstract:

Throughout Sri Lanka's civil war (1983–2009) official and international news media was dominated by ethnic politics while civilian voices remained silent. Similarly, at the end of the war, media manipulation of civilian traumas for a continuing political contest between the Sri Lankan Government and Tamil diasporic groups shut down other discursive frameworks. The more intimate stories of loss, bereavement, depression and grief were manipulated for a prolonged and bitter nationalist struggle. This article returns to a medium in which these stories were previously voiced, during the war years, in South Asian cinema. Due to government censorship of news media and limited access to the war zone, the local film industries proved to be the more cogent mediums for representing deep-rooted cultural anxieties to mainstream audiences. They conveyed everyday realities absent from news media in fictional interpretations of real events. Questions were raised regarding the affective memories and loyalties of the ethnic conflict and the role of women. The home, its destruction, displacement or re-inscription through violence became a central concern. This article focuses on three South Asian films that explored the subject of motherhood, homelessness and militarization of the ethno-cultural domestic sphere at the height of the ethnic conflict. Their shift from the urban public sites of military contest to private domestic spaces of civilian experience offered a cultural examination of political violence. By revisiting them as early conjectures of civilian trauma we ask how their interpretations of gender and place might be understood in the wake of the civil war.

Keywords: film, Gender, civil war, homelessness, home, modernity

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Civil Society, Gender, Women, Media, Households, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Sri Lanka

Year: 2012

Gender, Conflict, and the Militarization of Climate Change Policy

Citation:

Nagel, Joane. 2015. “Gender, Conflict, and the Militarization of Climate Change Policy.” Peace Review 27 (2): 202–8. doi:10.1080/10402659.2015.1037629.

 

Author: Joane Nagel

Abstract:

The article suggests that mandating gender parity in climate change research funding may be a way to refocus research questions from large-scale planetary intervention or militarized responses. Topics discussed include research finding that including women in environmental decision-making makes a difference in policy outcomes. Also mentioned is the creation of more gender-balanced structures as a first step toward taking on the challenge of climate change.

Topics: Environment, Gender, Gender Balance, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization

Year: 2015

Introduction: Feminist Security Studies and Feminist Political Economy: Crossing Divides and Rebuilding Bridges

Citation:

Elias, Juanita. 2015. “Introduction: Feminist Security Studies and Feminist Political Economy: Crossing Divides and Rebuilding Bridges.” Politics & Gender 11 (2): 406–8.

Author: Juanita Elias

Annotation:

Summary:
"The essays here reflect on the need to rebuild bridges between two key strands of feminist International Relations (IR) scholarship: feminist security studies (FSS) and feminist (international) political economy (FPE/FIPE). As many of the contributions to this section point out, feminist IR scholarship has long emphasized how gender relations and identities are constituted globally in relation to processes of militarization, securitization, globalization, and governance. In more recent years, however, feminist IR scholarship has come to be dominated by a concern with security (Prügl 2011). Of course, FPE scholarship has continued to provide critical accounts of the gendered nature of global production, work, and financial crises (among other issues). But it is notable that, in doing so, much FPE scholarship has tended to avoid questions of security and/or violence. This CP section, then, looks to the growing divide between FSS and FPE with all of the contributors seeking to analyse how these two traditions of feminist scholarship might be reintegrated and why this reintegration is important" (Elias 2015, 406).

Topics: Economies, Feminisms, Gender Roles, Gender Analysis, Globalization, Governance, Militarization, Political Economies, Security

Year: 2015

Sexing the State: The Gendered Origins of the Civil War in Sierra Leone

Citation:

Lahai, John Idriss. 2010. “Sexing the State: The Gendered Origins of the Civil War in Sierra Leone.” Minerva Journal of Women and War 4 (2): 26–45. doi:10.3172/MIN.4.2.26.

 

Author: John Idriss Lahai

Abstract:

As a rethink to the existing gender-neutral argument surrounding the causes of the civil war in Sierra Leone, this article presents an alternative framework of pre-war gender structural inequality to explain the conflict. While it does not present a feminist-essentialist argument in defense of the nuanced "peaceful" nature of women, it contends that the long standing exclusion of women in politics, and the lack of social and economic structural equality - which also precipitated the social and political acceptance of violence - should be understood as an antecedent to the war. And it is also argued in this article that although the youth bulge contributed to a militarized culture before the war, the crux of the problem was the lack of women's pre-war reproductive rights and sexual autonomy. To insist on a gendered reasoning to explain civil wars, we should note, appears to be part of the feminist call for the recognition of gender (in)equality in the war-peace calculus. Despite that, it also bears some positive analytical framework for interpreting the "male-instigated" civil wars and the violence that occurred therein (see, e.g., Cockburn 2001). Against this backdrop, we cannot explain the ways how the war affected women, without looking at the pre-war gender structural inequalities. Thus, it is hoped that this article will give voice to women and explain how women's low status contributed to the militarization of pre-war state politics, in the subsequent war, and in shaping the patterns of wartime sexual and gender-based violence between 1991 and 2002.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Gender Analysis, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Sierra Leone

Year: 2010

Militarised Minds: The Lives of Ex-Combatants in South Africa

Citation:

Maringira, Godfrey. 2015. “Militarised Minds: The Lives of Ex-Combatants in South Africa.” Sociology 49 (1): 72–87. 

Author: Godfrey Maringira

Abstract:

This article focuses on how ex-combatants in South Africa remain militarised. Identities which were forged through resistance continue to be reproduced in different ways in post-conflict society. Military identity is a source of status and recognition in the everyday lives of ex-combatants, either as 'defenders of the community' or for individual gain. While some may argue that there is no such thing as military identity, the group of ex-combatants interviewed remained attached to such an identity and saw themselves as having a particular role in their communities. While studies, particularly in Africa, present ex-combatants as if they can be easily transformed into civilian life, this article considers the difficulties of such a process. The argument is that it is a complex matter to demilitarise ex-combatant minds in a highly unequal and militarised community. Sixteen life history interviews were collected, 11 with APLA ex combatants and five with Zimbabwean army deserters.

Keywords: demilitarization, deserters, ex-combatants, military identity, South Africa, Zimbabwe

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, DDR, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gender Roles, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Post-Conflict Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2015

Troubled Engagement in Ethnicized Conflict

Citation:

Byrne, Siobhan. 2014. “Troubled Engagement in Ethnicized Conflict.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 16 (1): 106–26. doi:10.1080/14616742.2012.757020.

Author: Siobhan Byrne

Abstract:

Feminist cross-community initiatives, which emerged in Northern Ireland and Israel/Palestine in the 1980s, are frequently lauded in the gender and conflict literature as evidence of the ways in which women can work across ethnonational boundaries. In particular, the theory of ‘transversal dialogue’, developed by Nira Yuval-Davis and adopted by other feminist scholars and activists, suggests that participants have developed a mode of dialogue that enables them to acknowledge differences while developing common goals. In ethicized conflict, transversal politics is understood as an alternative to the essentializing of ‘identity politics’ as well as their undemocratic character. The empirical research, however, suggests that identity politics remains relevant for participants, particularly when cross-community dialogue is limited by external political realities and internal community divisions. In my view, understanding the ways in which identity politics contributes to the development of feminist goals related to women's inclusion in peace processes and post-conflict peace-building is not at odds with transversal politics; rather, women use both modes of politics to build feminist networks and tackle women's marginalization in hyper-masculinized and militarized zones of ethnicized conflict.

Keywords: cross-community feminist activism, ethnicized conflict, identity politics, Israel/Politics, Northern Ireland, transversalism

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Gender, Women, Masculinity/ies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Peacebuilding, Peace Processes, Post-Conflict Regions: Africa, MENA, Asia, Middle East, Europe, Western Europe Countries: Ireland, Israel

Year: 2014

Living with the Fence: Militarization and Military Spaces on Guahan/Guam

Citation:

Alexander, Ronni. 2016. “Living with the Fence: Militarization and Military Spaces on Guahan/Guam.” Gender, Place & Culture 23 (6): 869–82. doi:10.1080/0966369X.2015.1073697.

 

Author: Ronni Alexander

Abstract:

The landscape of Guahan/Guam, an organized unincorporated territory of the USA and the largest and southernmost island of the Mariana Islands archipelago, is visibly marked by chain link fences that enclose land taken for use by the US military. This US military presence on Guam is evidence of a long military colonial history that has stressed, particularly under US rule, the importance of the island's strategic location. The ‘fence,’ a frequently used but rarely defined expression, refers to a multiplicity of lines, most of which recreate a dichotomous view of military/local relations, and help to make invisible the complex web of identities that go through, over, and beyond its real and imagined spaces. Working from an understanding that theory must be grounded in experience, this article draws on interviews to explore the multiple meanings of the fence. It focuses on the ways the colonized, militarized, and gendered spaces of the fence promote US values, interests, and security concerns but also mark points of resistance to militarization and colonization. Exploring the ways colonization and militarization are played out on the bodies of those who live and work on the island, the article concludes that tearing down the ‘fence’ must include both demilitarization and decolonization, but in ways that transcend, rather than reproduce its present gendered and dichotomous spaces.

Keywords: Guam, Gender, militarization, colonization, Chamoru

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Gender, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization Regions: Oceania Countries: United States of America

Year: 2016

The Present Tense of Afghanistan: Accounting for Space, Time and Gender in Processes of Militarisation

Citation:

Hyde, Alexandra. 2016. “The Present Tense of Afghanistan: Accounting for Space, Time and Gender in Processes of Militarisation.” Gender, Place & Culture 23 (6): 857–68. doi:10.1080/0966369X.2015.1058759.

 

Author: Alexandra Hyde

Abstract:

Based on ethnographic research among women married to servicemen, this article explores the diffusion of militarisation across time as well as social space. The study setting is a garrison town in Germany during the deployment of women's husbands to Afghanistan. Rather than prioritising the grand narratives of linear time prevalent in IR and military history, however, this article takes into account cyclical and everyday modes of temporality that have traditionally been associated (and undervalued) as feminised ‘zones’, including reproduction, the domestic sphere and local social space. The article explores the temporal register of an operational tour and demonstrates the material, discursive and emotional labour undertaken by military wives in smoothing and converting this rupture into stability through everyday practices. Accounting for the diffusion of militarisation over time as well as space in this way provides further evidence that its causes and effects are intricately gendered.

Keywords: militarisation, temporality, contingency, war, home

Topics: Gender, Women, Femininity/ies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Militarization Regions: Asia, South Asia, Europe, Central Europe Countries: Afghanistan, Germany

Year: 2016

Pages

© 2024 CONSORTIUM ON GENDER, SECURITY & HUMAN RIGHTSLEGAL STATEMENT All photographs used on this site, and any materials posted on it, are the property of their respective owners, and are used by permission. Photographs: The images used on the site may not be downloaded, used, or reproduced in any way without the permission of the owner of the image. Materials: Visitors to the site are welcome to peruse the materials posted for their own research or for educational purposes. These materials, whether the property of the Consortium or of another, may only be reproduced with the permission of the owner of the material. This website contains copyrighted materials. The Consortium believes that any use of copyrighted material on this site is both permissive and in accordance with the Fair Use doctrine of 17 U.S.C. § 107. If, however, you believe that your intellectual property rights have been violated, please contact the Consortium at info@genderandsecurity.org.

Subscribe to RSS - Militarization