Abstract
This blog post critically examines the need to queer the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Agenda in UN peacekeeping operations (PKOs). WPS has historically focused on women’s roles in peace and security and often marginalises LGBTQ identities (Hagen, 2016; 2021; Davies & Stern, 2019; OutRight International, 2020). Drawing on expert interviews with UN Peacekeepers, UN Gender Advisors, and WPS Gender Experts, this post explores how WPS can be reformed to incorporate queer perspectives and better serve the complex realities of marginalised conflict-affected populations. The inclusion of LGBTQ individuals challenges the binary and heteronormative frameworks that dominate WPS and UN peacekeeping discourses, thereby creating more inclusive, equitable peace strategies. These expert interviews are important because they offer deep insight and reflections on the real-life impact and manifestations of WPS on PKOs.
In these expert interviews the key themes discussed include (1) the relevance of queer theory in dismantling barriers to inclusion, (2) the gaps in current WPS policy, and (3) the importance of intersectionality in UN peacebuilding. By queering WPS, the blog post calls for reforms that represent all marginalised identities in conflict and post-conflict settings. This post ultimately argues that queering WPS is essential for more effective, representative, and gender-just peacekeeping operations in today’s diverse global landscape. By shifting away from heteronormative and cisgendered frameworks, this research aims to exemplify how UN peacekeeping can move beyond merely safeguarding women to protecting all vulnerable individuals, thus ensuring more equitable outcomes for UN peace work.
Introduction: Women, Peace, and Security (WPS): Towards a Queer-Inclusive Approach
Since the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000, WPS has aimed to transform the role of women in global peace and security initiatives. Built around four main pillars – prevention, protection, participation, and relief & recovery – WPS serves as a comprehensive framework to address the gendered impacts of conflict and to promote women’s roles in peacebuilding. However, despite its progress, the WPS framework largely adheres to heteronormative assumptions that neglect the diverse experiences of LGBTQ individuals.
Given that PKOs play a central role in conflict-affected regions, queering WPS within these operations is vital to fostering a more inclusive approach to peace and security. PKOs continue to be deeply shaped by traditional understandings of gender and security, often sidelining marginalised groups, including LGBTQ+ persons. Addressing this gap, a queer lens on WPS has the potential to highlight how these populations experience violence and exclusion and ensure that peacekeeping activities promote their security and rights.
The WPS Framework: A Foundation for Gender Inclusion in Peacebuilding
WPS was designed to incorporate gender perspectives in conflict resolution and peacebuilding (Shepherd, 2008). It calls for women’s participation at all decision-making levels, ensures the protection of women and girls from gender-based violence, and promotes the inclusion of women’s perspectives in peace processes (ibid). While WPS represents a significant advancement, its conception of gender often remains limited to binary categories, excluding non-normative identities from the conversation (Otto, 2006). The pillar structure of WPS provides the framework for how gender is conceptualised in peace and security efforts (George & Shepherd, 2016). For PKOs, these pillars not only shape operations but influence the broader discourse on gender and security within conflict zones (Heathcote & Otto, 2014). As PKOs are charged with the task of maintaining peace and supporting post-conflict recovery, integrating a more inclusive gender perspective can strengthen UN Peacekeepers‘ ability to engage with and protect vulnerable groups on the ground.
Why Queer WPS and PKOs?
‘Queering’ WPS means questioning and dismantling the cis-heteronormative assumptions that underpin peace and security strategies (Hagen, 2016; 2021; Davies & Stern, 2019). LGBTQ+ individuals often face heightened risks of violence during and after conflicts, yet their specific security needs remain largely overlooked (Hagen, 2016). Without a broader understanding of gender and security, WPS risks perpetuating exclusion, limiting its transformative potential (Davies & Stern, 2019; OutRight International, 2020). The inclusion of LGBTQ+ perspectives is particularly relevant in PKOs, as peacekeepers are often positioned as first responders in conflict-affected areas. By queering WPS, peacekeepers would be better equipped to recognise and address the needs of those who fall outside binary gender and sexual identities. Moreover, expanding the WPS framework to reflect diverse gender identities would ensure that policies are designed to support and protect all populations.
Methodology
To explore how WPS can be queered in PKOs, I conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with three groups of key stakeholders: UN peacekeepers employed within the Irish Defence Forces (DF) with no gender expertise, UN Gender Advisors employed within the DF with gender expertise, and WPS Gender Experts working within the Government of Ireland’s WPS Oversight Group. This selection of interviewees provided a comprehensive account of how WPS is understood within the UN and among its adjacent organisations, such as the DF and the Irish Consortium on Gender-Based Violence. Semi-structured, expert interviews are regularly used in qualitative research approaches (Meuser & Nagel, 2009), crucially, as a result of their intrinsic openness and consistent orientation toward a reflective research-participant engagement throughout (Bogner et al., 2018).
Interviews focused on several key themes: how the participants experience their roles in peacekeeping and WPS policy spaces; their perspectives on how WPS impacts peacekeeping operations; their thoughts on current UN definitions of gender; and their views on the inclusion of LGBTQ individuals in WPS. Through this approach, the research aimed to gather insights into the barriers that prevent WPS from being more inclusive and to identify potential policy reforms. The expert interview process began with obtaining ethical approval to conduct the study within the DF. I was assigned a point of contact within the DF, who helped distribute information about the research via the internal system, IKON. Interviewees were recruited through a snowball sampling method, and my point of contact later introduced me to the Irish Consortium on Gender-Based Violence, which facilitated interviews with WPS Gender Experts.
Discussion: Queering the Future of WPS
The expert interviews revealed several critical suggestions for reforming WPS and PKOs to ensure a more inclusive approach. Key reforms proposed by interviewees for a queering of WPS are:
- Expanding Gender Definitions in WPS Pre-Deployment Training
Update WPS and peacekeeping training programmes to reflect LGBTQ perspectives, moving beyond the traditional male-female binary.
“Regendering men as well, […] giving them the permission to see their own lives as gendered in some way too. This can be sought through a movement of our language toward Gender, Peace, and Security” – WPS Gender Expert
- Improving Operational Guidelines for Peacekeepers
Provide clearer and more practical operational guidelines for peacekeepers to ensure the protection of LGBTQ+ individuals in conflict zones.
Encouraging UN Peacekeepers to “be conscious and aware that LGBTQ are targeted people, and keep that in mind when we’re training in peacekeeping and peacebuilding contexts.” – WPS Gender Expert
- Increasing Intersectionality in National Action Plans (NAPs)
WPS NAPs should reflect an intersectional approach, considering how gender, sexuality, and other identities intersect in conflict situations.
“This shift in language would mark a deep commitment to the work, and within that, a deep commitment to the need for a centring of feminist analysis in a queer praxis, in peace and security settings.” – UN Gender Advisor
- Promoting Cultural Sensitivity and Ensuring PKOs are Context-Specific
Ensure peacekeeping missions adopt culturally sensitive approaches when working with local communities, taking into account regional variations in gender norms.
“We need to have more out-of-the-box thinking […] we have a tendency to rush in and repeat our same mistakes again and again.” – UN Peacekeeper
- Remodelling of Data and Conflict-Analysis
Reform PKO planning procedure to be more evidence-based. This way, WPS initiatives can be rooted in the realities of the conflict on the ground, led by local conflict-effected communities and experts.
“The UN, more often than not, bring in an external expert for the research, and that person has to spend six to eight months trying to understand where they are, and then that might be the end of their mission” – advocating for “less individual expert, more diverse expert panel (my italics).” – WPS Gender Expert
Conclusion
Queering WPS is not only a matter of expanding its scope but of fundamentally rethinking how gender is understood and operationalised in peace and security contexts. By adopting a more inclusive approach that recognises and protects LGBTQ+ individuals, the WPS framework can better fulfil its mandate of ensuring security and justice for all vulnerable populations. Integrating this perspective into PKOs will enhance the capacity of peacekeepers to respond to diverse security needs and create more equitable and inclusive peacebuilding processes. Expert interviews of this nature are important as they offer research(ers) a means of understanding how gender, at a UN level, is understood and applied in WPS-related peacekeeping activities overseas. These conversations have provided ‘expert’ knowledge into a range of Irish and UN policy level spaces, showcasing the range of issue at present, but also, the various potentials for improvement WPS-PKOs has the potential for in the future.
References
Bogner, A., Littig, B. & Menz, W. (2018). Generating Qualitative Data with Experts and Elites In: Flick, U. (Eds). The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Data Collection. London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 652–665.
Davies, S. E., & Stern, J. (2019). WPS and LGBTI Rights. In Davies, S. E., & True, J. (Eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Women, Peace, And Security. Oxford University Press.
George, N. & Shepherd, L.J. (2016). Women, Peace and Security: Exploring the implementation and integration of UNSCR 1325. International Political Science Review, 37 (3). 297-306.
Hagen, J.J. (2016). “Queering women, peace and security” International Affairs, 92(2), 313-332. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2346.12551
Hagen, J.J. (2021). “LGBTQ Perspectives in Peacebuilding” In: Richmond, P., Oliver and Visoka, Gezim (Eds.) The Palgrave Encyclopaedia of Peace and Conflict Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77954-2_92
Heathcote, G., & Otto, D. (Eds.). (2014). Rethinking Peacekeeping, Gender Equality and Collective Security. London: Springer.
Meuser, M. & Nagel, U. (2009). The Expert Interview and Changes in Knowledge Production In Bogner, A., Littig, B. & Menz, W. (Eds.) Interviewing Experts. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 17–42.
Otto, D. (2006). A Sign of Weakness-Disrupting Gender Certainties in the Implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325. Mich. J. Gender & L., 13(113). https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjgl/vol13/iss1/4
OutRight International. (2020). The Women, Peace and Security Agenda and Its Implications for LGBTIQ People.
https://outrightinternational.org/sites/default/files/2023-08/WomenPeaceSecurity2020.pdf
Shepherd, L.J (2008). Gender, Violence and Security: Discourse as Practice. London and New York: Zed Books.
About the Author
Alexandra Richardson [she/they] (Trinity College Dublin) – Alex is a PhD Candidate in International Peace Studies at Trinity College Dublin. Alex’s research focuses on queering the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Agenda, examining the inclusion of people with a diverse sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression (SOGIE) within international peace and security frameworks. With a background in gender studies, peace research, and international relations, Alex’s work bridges academic inquiry and advocacy, aiming to challenge binary understandings of gender and promote intersectional approaches to UN peacekeeping. Their work also explores the role of queer organisations in shaping inclusive peace processes and advancing the safety and well-being of marginalised communities globally.