Paramilitaries

Citation:

Ashe, Fidelma. 2012. "Gendering War and Peace: Militarized Masculinities in Northern Ireland." Men and Masculinities 15 (3): 1-19. doi:10.1177/1097184X12442636.

Author: Fidelma Ashe

Abstract:

Keywords: demilitarization, masculinities, Northern Ireland, conflict transformation

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Ethnicity, Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Paramilitaries, Nationalism Regions: Europe, Northern Europe Countries: United Kingdom

Year: 2012

Citation:

Basu, Soumita, and Maya Eichler. 2011. "Women’s Participation in the Military and Security Sphere: Comparing the Public and Private Sectors." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association Annual Conference ‘Global Governance: Political Authority in Transition’, Montreal, March 16-19.

Authors: Soumita Basu, Maya Eichler

Abstract:

This paper investigates women’s participation in the military sphere against the backdrop of the increasing privatization of military security. The feminist International Relations (IR) literature has critically examined women’s integration into national armed forces and more recently explored women’s role in paramilitary groups. The issue of women’s participation in private military and security companies (PMSCs) has gained less scholarly attention, but is important considering the significant role of the private sector in security provision and warfare today. The paper will place the question of women’s participation in PMSCs in the context of debates on gender and militarization. In particular, we will address the following questions: (1) How does the use of private military force reproduce militarized gender roles and violence? (2) What are the specific concerns that need to be addressed in relation to women’s participation in PMSCs (e.g. issues of equal status, sexual harassment)? (3) How does the emerging regulatory framework for the private military sector address gender concerns, and what are its limitations?

Topics: Combatants, Female Combatants, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Private Military & Security, Militaries, Militarization, Paramilitaries, Violence

Year: 2011

Citation:

Sehgal, Meera. 2007. “Manufacturing a Feminized Siege Mentality: Hindu Nationalist Paramilitary Camps for Women in India.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 36 (2): 165-83. doi:10.1177/0891241606298823.

Author: Meera Sehgal

Abstract:

This article examines the discursive and embodied processes employed at Hindu nationalist paramilitary camps for women that transform traditional, middle-class Hindu women into committed, active participants in the powerful, right-wing Hindu Nationalist Movement in India. Based on ethnographic research on the Rashtra Sevika Samiti (the Samiti), a core women's organization in the movement, I argue that the Samiti effectively manufactures a feminized siege mentality. This mentality is a learned disposition in which female members of a community perceive themselves as potential prey to male members of a community of “outsiders.” The discursive practices include entwined discourses of Hindu women's victimization by Muslim men and empowerment by the Samiti. The embodied practices include a paramilitary physical training program that masquerades as self-defense training but in fact manufactures a fear of sexual attacks by Muslim men in the public sphere, while deflecting from sources of violence within the private sphere.

Topics: Gender, Women, Femininity/ies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Paramilitaries, Nationalism, Religion, Violence Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2007

Citation:

Robert, Krisztina. 1997. “Gender, Class, and Patriotism: Women’s Paramilitary Units in First World War Britain.” The International History Review 19 (1): 52-65.

Author: Krisztina Robert

Topics: Armed Conflict, Class, Gender, Women, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Paramilitaries Regions: Europe, Northern Europe Countries: United Kingdom

Year: 1997

Citation:

Steiner, Birthe, Marie T. Benner, Egbert Sondorp, K. Peter Schmitz, Ursula Mesmer, and Sandrine Rosenberger. 2009. “Sexual Violence in the Protracted Conflict of DRC Programming for Rape Survivors in South Kivu.” Conflict and Health 3 (3): 1-9. doi:10.1186/1752-1505-3-3.

Authors: Birthe Steiner, Marie T. Benner, Egbert Sondorp, K. Peter Schmitz, Ursula Mesmer, Sandrine Rosenberger

Abstract:

Background: Despite international acknowledgement of the linkages between sexual violence and conflict, reliable data on its prevalence, the circumstances, characteristics of perpetrators, and physical or mental health impacts is rare. Among the conflicts that have been associated with widespread sexual violence has been the one in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Methods: From 2003 till to date Malteser International has run a medico-social support programme for rape survivors in South Kivu province, DRC. In the context of this programme, a host of data was collected. We present these data and discuss the findings within the frame of available literature.

Results: Malteser International registered 20,517 female rape survivors in the three year period 2005–2007. Women of all ages have been targeted by sexual violence and only few of those – and many of them only after several years – sought medical care and psychological help. Sexual violence in the DRC frequently led to social, especially familial, exclusion. Members of military and paramilitary groups were identified as the main perpetrators of sexual violence.

Conclusion: We have documented that in the DRC conflict sexual violence has been – and continues to be – highly prevalent in a wide area in the East of the country. Humanitarian programming in this field is challenging due to the multiple needs of rape survivors. The easily accessible, integrated medical and psycho-social care that the programme offered apparently responded to the needs of many rape survivors in this area.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Health, Mental Health, Trauma, Humanitarian Assistance, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Paramilitaries, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Women Regions: Africa, Central Africa Countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo

Year: 2009

Citation:

Brett, Sebastian. 2003. You’ll Learn Not to Cry: Child Combatants in Colombia. New York: Human Rights Watch.

Author: Sebastian Brett

Abstract:

More than 11,000 children fight in Colombia's armed conflict, one of the highest totals in the world. Both guerrilla and paramilitary forces rely on child combatants, who have committed atrocities and are even made to execute other children who try to desert. The first comprehensive report published on this issue, "You'll Learn Not to Cry" documents how Colombia's illegal armies have recruited increasing numbers of children in recent years. Only Burma (Myanmar) and the Democratic Republic of Congo are believed to have significantly larger numbers of child combatants than Colombia. The 150-page book, based on interviews with 112 former child combatants, documents how both guerrillas and paramilitaries exploit the desperation of poor children in rural combat zones. Many join up for food or physical protection, to escape domestic violence, or because of promises of money. Some are coerced to join at gunpoint, or join out of fear. Others are street children with nowhere to go. Children as young as thirteen are trained to use assault rifles, grenades and mortars. Human Rights Watch urged guerrilla and paramilitary forces to end all recruitment of children under the age of eighteen and to demobilize the children in their ranks. Pending complete demobilization, the group urged the following immediate and unconditional steps: firmly prohibit forcible recruitment; allow those who wish to leave without reprisals; cease executions of children; and provide proper medical care for the sick or wounded. (Human Rights Watch)

Topics: Age, Youth, Armed Conflict, Combatants, Child Soldiers, Domestic Violence, Gender, Girls, Boys, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Paramilitaries Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2003

Citation:

Echavarría Alvarez, Josefina. 2009. “Doing Gender in the Midst of War: The Example of the Demobilization Process of Paramilitaries in Medellín, Colombia 2003-2007.” Peace Studies Journal 2 (2): 51-75.

Author: Josefina Echavarría Alvarez

Abstract:

This article examines how the demobilization process of former paramilitary groups in the Colombian city of Medellín does gender by representing the ‘traditional nuclear family’ as the marker of pacification for former male combatants. By reading the Democratic Security Policy, it makes visible the ways in which the state project of security aims at fixing the moral boundaries of the identity category of nationals. It looks at the security practice of demobilization, individual as well as collective ones, and interrogates how it informs and shapes traditional notions of family. Finally, this article highlights the functions and effects that the invisibility of gender plays in the legitimation of the state project of security and questions the violence embedded in sanctioned gender relationships.

Keywords: security, identity, gender, war on terror, demobilization

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Male Combatants, DDR, Gender, Women, Men, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Households, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Paramilitaries, Security, Violence Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2009

Citation:

McEvoy, Sandra. 2009. “Loyalist Women Paramilitaries in Northern Ireland: Beginning a Feminist Conversation about Conflict Resolution.” Security Studies 18 (2): 262–86. doi:10.1080/09636410902900095.

Author: Sandra McEvoy

Abstract:

Research on war, conflict, and terrorism has traditionally focused on the motivations of male combatants to participate in political violence. Such a focus has largely ignored the role of women who wield political violence. This article revisits one of feminist International Relations (IR) most basic questions, “Where are the women?” and encourages an expanded view of security and conflict resolution that asks how combatant women might contribute to current scholarly understanding of conflict and conflict resolution processes. I argue that the thirty-year conflict remained intractable in part because of the exclusion of those Loyalist women who wielded political violence, seriously limiting the British and Irish governments' ability to understand and resolve the conflict. Included in the analysis is interview data collected in an eight-month empirical study conducted by the author in 2006 with thirty women who identify as past or present members or supporters of Loyalist paramilitary organizations in Northern Ireland. The unique perceptions of Loyalist women combatants of four cross-border agreements between 1974 and 2006 are used to illustrate how a feminist approach to conflict resolution can serve as an innovating starting point in theorizing about and attempting to resolve conflict.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Paramilitaries, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Security, Terrorism, Violence Regions: Europe Countries: United Kingdom

Year: 2009

Citation:

Littlewood, Roland. 1997. “Military Rape.” Anthropology Today 13 (2): 7-16.

Author: Roland Littlewood

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Male Combatants, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Masculinism, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Militarism, Paramilitaries, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexuality

Year: 1997