Security and defence policy

All European Union (EU) policies are gendered in terms of their inclusion of women in decision-making processes, their norms and impact. Yet security and defence policy is a particularly strongly gendered field, visible in the dominance of men, the strong association of weapons and war with masculinity, and the disproportionate effects of war on women in terms of physical and structural violence. It is therefore not surprising – yet indispensable – that the EU has only recently considered gender as part of its Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) ¹ and that research on gender in CSDP is rare. The EU is expected to be a frontrunner in gender equality because it understands itself and it is understood by others (even if debated) as a ‘normative power’ in the world promoting norms of democracy and human rights, including gender equality (Guerrina and Wright 2016; Manners 2006; see van der Vleuten in this volume). This stems from the EU’s equality policies in relation to the Single Market (van der Vleuten 2017; Woodward and van der Vleuten 2014) and is underlined by its commitment in the Amsterdam Treaty 1997 to implement gender mainstreaming in all EU policies (Guerrina and Wright 2016). However, not only in security and defence but in EU external relations more generally there is little evidence of gender-sensitive policies (cf. Special Issue ed. Muehlenhoff, van der Vleuten and Welfens 2020). By now, international organisations, states, practitioners and scholars have recognised that it is crucial to include gender considerations into security policies. The United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), in short: UNSCR 1325 as of 2000, including its follow-up resolutions, is the most powerful manifestation of this realisation.