En-Gendering UN Peacekeeping Operations

Abstract

Contrary to the optimistic projections of some analysts, the end of the Cold War has not resulted diminished threats to world peace and security, but rather new and more complex ones.' In the post-Cold War decade, the international community has experienced violence and suffering a gross and indiscriminate manner, forcing a reevaluation of traditional conceptions of security and approaches toward conflict. This article examines how the UN is responding to these changes the global security agenda the context of the role of gender UN peacekeeping operations. More specifically, the article asks whether gender-mainstreaming strategies-as outlined by resolution 1325-are actually being implemented current UN peace operations, or whether this is merely another example of lip service paid to women's role international peace and security issues. Through an analysis of four gender mainstreaming strategies currently used UN peacekeeping operations, the data will illustrate that such strategies are, fact, being implemented, and that the role of women peacekeeping missions is gradually expanding. While the implementation process is far from ideal, it is significant not only for those directly involved but for those concerned with conceptions of security more broadly. I end by outlining some of the implications that the incorporation of gender might have on the way we approach international security and conflict resolution.GENDER MAINSTREAMING PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONSIn October 2000, the security council adopted resolution 1325, a landmark step raising awareness of the impact of armed conflict on women and girls and acknowledging the vital role of women's agency conflict resolution and peace-building. For the first time the history of the UN, the security council formally decided on a gender issue, setting a new threshold of action for the security council, the UN system, and for governments.2 This watershed political framework, using the term gender mainstreaming, calls for and makes gender relevant to negotiating peace agreements, planning refugee camps and peacekeeping operations, reconstructing war-torn societies, and ultimately making gender equality relevant to every single council action.This resolution is particularly salient given that UN peace operations have witnessed a revival the post-Cold War era. Not only has the UN been embroiled more operations than ever before, but these operations have become even more complex and wider scope. They involve providing humanitarian relief (Bosnia and the Kurdish areas of Iraq); separating combatants and protecting civilians civil wars (Croatia, Bosnia, and Somalia); creating new and different government structures (Afghanistan and Liberia); and, a few instances, actually running the country for a time (Cambodia and Haiti). Tasks assigned to UN peacekeepers are no longer limited to military activities, and peacekeeping efforts are not only directed at parties to a conflict. Peace missions have expanded to include institutionbuilding, economic development, the protection of human rights, humanitarian relief, and the monitoring of elections.3This apparent renaissance UN peace operations (both terms of frequency and changed mandates) makes the organization, structure, and implementation of such operations a subject of chief concern. As such, one persistent criticism of past and present approaches to conflict resolution general and to UN peace operations particular has been the exclusive nature of its structures and processes, both procedurally and substantively. Many argue that this closed nature has limited the capacity of the UN to deal effectively with the complexity of contemporary global problems.4 In response to this increasingly common criticism, the integration of gender perspectives areas of peace and security has become a central strategy for the United Nations and its member states, informed by the notion that in a world of continuing instability and violence. …