Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Cosmopolitan militaries and dialogic peacekeeping : Danish and Swedish women soldiers in Afghanistan

Bergman Rosamond, Annika LU and Kronsell, Annica LU (2018) In International Feminist Journal of Politics 20(2). p.172-187
Abstract

Feminist security studies (FFS) scholarship advocates the analysis of women’s war experiences and narratives to understand conflict and military intervention. Here we add a non-great power focus to FFS debates on the gendered discourses of military interventionism. We zoom in on Danish and Swedish women soldiers’ reflections on their involvement in the ISAF operation in Afghanistan. Their stories are deconstructed against the backdrop of their states’ adoption of a cosmopolitan-minded ethic on military obligation. Both states employed women soldiers in dialogic peacekeeping in Afghanistan to establish links with local women and to gather intelligence, tasks that were less frequently afforded to male soldiers. However, feminist FSS... (More)

Feminist security studies (FFS) scholarship advocates the analysis of women’s war experiences and narratives to understand conflict and military intervention. Here we add a non-great power focus to FFS debates on the gendered discourses of military interventionism. We zoom in on Danish and Swedish women soldiers’ reflections on their involvement in the ISAF operation in Afghanistan. Their stories are deconstructed against the backdrop of their states’ adoption of a cosmopolitan-minded ethic on military obligation. Both states employed women soldiers in dialogic peacekeeping in Afghanistan to establish links with local women and to gather intelligence, tasks that were less frequently afforded to male soldiers. However, feminist FSS scholarship locates military intelligence gathering within racial, gendered and imperialist power relations that assign victimhood to local women. This feminist critique is pertinent, but the gendered and racial logics governing international operations vary across national contexts. While such gender binaries were present in Danish and Swedish military practice in Afghanistan, our article shows that dialogical peacekeeping offered an alternative to stereotypical constructions of women as victims and men as protectors. Dialogical peacekeeping helped to disrupt such gendering processes, giving women soldiers an opportunity to rethink their gender identities while instilling dialogical relations with local women.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
cosmopolitanism, dialogic peacekeeping, Feminist security studies, narratives, non-great powers, women soldiers
in
International Feminist Journal of Politics
volume
20
issue
2
pages
172 - 187
publisher
Taylor & Francis
external identifiers
  • scopus:85031892540
ISSN
1461-6742
DOI
10.1080/14616742.2017.1378449
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
c8d18847-1491-4704-91f6-d0432f9d1f11
date added to LUP
2017-10-30 13:33:46
date last changed
2022-04-25 03:36:10
@article{c8d18847-1491-4704-91f6-d0432f9d1f11,
  abstract     = {{<p>Feminist security studies (FFS) scholarship advocates the analysis of women’s war experiences and narratives to understand conflict and military intervention. Here we add a non-great power focus to FFS debates on the gendered discourses of military interventionism. We zoom in on Danish and Swedish women soldiers’ reflections on their involvement in the ISAF operation in Afghanistan. Their stories are deconstructed against the backdrop of their states’ adoption of a cosmopolitan-minded ethic on military obligation. Both states employed women soldiers in dialogic peacekeeping in Afghanistan to establish links with local women and to gather intelligence, tasks that were less frequently afforded to male soldiers. However, feminist FSS scholarship locates military intelligence gathering within racial, gendered and imperialist power relations that assign victimhood to local women. This feminist critique is pertinent, but the gendered and racial logics governing international operations vary across national contexts. While such gender binaries were present in Danish and Swedish military practice in Afghanistan, our article shows that dialogical peacekeeping offered an alternative to stereotypical constructions of women as victims and men as protectors. Dialogical peacekeeping helped to disrupt such gendering processes, giving women soldiers an opportunity to rethink their gender identities while instilling dialogical relations with local women.</p>}},
  author       = {{Bergman Rosamond, Annika and Kronsell, Annica}},
  issn         = {{1461-6742}},
  keywords     = {{cosmopolitanism; dialogic peacekeeping; Feminist security studies; narratives; non-great powers; women soldiers}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{04}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{172--187}},
  publisher    = {{Taylor & Francis}},
  series       = {{International Feminist Journal of Politics}},
  title        = {{Cosmopolitan militaries and dialogic peacekeeping : Danish and Swedish women soldiers in Afghanistan}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2017.1378449}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/14616742.2017.1378449}},
  volume       = {{20}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}