Date of Award

12-31-2018

Document Type

Campus Access Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Global Governance and Human Security

First Advisor

J. Samuel Barkin

Second Advisor

C. Heike Schotten

Third Advisor

Kade Finnoff

Abstract

The aim of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) resolutions, beginning with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000, is to involve women in peacebuilding, reconstruction, and gender mainstreaming efforts by requiring states to incorporate a gender perspective in all peace and security work. However, the resolutions make no mention of masculinity and femininity nor lesbian, bisexual or transgender (LBT) women. This dissertation bridges feminist security studies scholarship with a queer security analysis to illustrate how assumptions about the gender binary and heterosexuality in the WPS architecture have implications for whose stories are included in the international arena as well as which woman are secured by WPS programmatic work.

Through a discourse analysis of the WPS resolutions, significant implementation documents, and key informant interviews, this dissertation shows how the WPS architecture operationalizes the categories “women” and “gender” and why this matters to the integration of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) in peace and security work. A discourse analysis of 21 interviews conducted in 2016-2017 shows how these categories are used and why this matters to the practice of implementing the WPS resolutions. This dissertation also shows why a queering of the WPS architecture matters for actors invested in seeking global gender justice. To this end, the dissertation concludes with an analysis of how the three p’s of WPS, participation, prevention and protection, can be queered to include LBT women in the future.

Comments

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