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The Law of War and Peace: a gender analysis

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Gina Heathcote discusses the relationship between law, armed conflict, gender and peace.

Image courtesy of interviewee. June 20, 2024

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This video discusses a co-authored book titled "The Law of War and Peace: A Gender Analysis," written by the authors Sarah Ti, Emily Jones, and Sherry Lebinski. The book addresses gaps in the existing literature on gender and conflict, particularly the legal aspects regulating armed conflict. It aims to serve as both a teaching tool and a research agenda, focusing on how gender as a concept can be understood as a power relation rather than merely as an identity marker.

The authors argue that all laws governing war and peace are inherently gendered and explore how gender influences legal frameworks, particularly in relation to collective security, international humanitarian law, and counter-terrorism. They emphasize using gender as an analytical tool to scrutinize these laws, rather than just focusing on how they affect women.

The book critiques existing Security Council resolutions on women, peace, and security, arguing that they often frame women's roles and experiences too narrowly and may not be the best avenue for feminist legal reforms. The authors advocate for a broader understanding of gender dynamics, including intersectional and decolonial perspectives, and aim to inspire scholars to analyze the laws of war and conflict through a gendered lens.

Additionally, the authors express a commitment to highlighting peace studies and the importance of constructing a narrative around peace, rather than solely focusing on conflict and violence. They suggest that feminist and queer approaches can enrich the discourse on these topics, and they are currently working on a second book that will expand on these themes, particularly in relation to peace and decolonial perspectives.

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The Law of War and Peace, the gender analysis Volume one.

00:03.585 --> 00:05.885
Uh, it's a co-authored book, so I should say that.

00:05.985 --> 00:09.725
So speaking on behalf of my, three co-authors,

00:10.455 --> 00:13.885
Sarah Ti, Emily Jones and Sherry Lebinski,

00:14.025 --> 00:17.445
and all of us had a co-taught on a module called

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Gender Law and War.

00:19.825 --> 00:23.525
And it was in teaching the module, well, part of the idea

00:23.525 --> 00:27.285
of putting the idea the module together was to address

00:27.355 --> 00:31.325
what we saw as a shortfall in the broader, discipline

00:31.325 --> 00:35.965
of gender and conflict, where there was often an limited

00:36.525 --> 00:38.605
analysis of the legal regime,

00:38.715 --> 00:40.485
that regulated armed conflict.

00:41.315 --> 00:42.655
So we wanted to create a book

00:42.655 --> 00:44.135
that was in part a teaching tool,

00:44.135 --> 00:48.095
but also one that had a research agenda that spoke

00:48.115 --> 00:52.015
to the legal aspect of gender law and more.

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This is quite a lot of, literature on the gender

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and armed conflict element,

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but less so on the larger laws of war and peace.

01:00.275 --> 01:03.615
So we wanted to not just look at those that directly spoke

01:03.615 --> 01:04.695
to women,

01:04.795 --> 01:07.415
or gendered aspects of armed conflict, conflict,

01:07.515 --> 01:10.615
but subject all laws on war and peace.

01:10.615 --> 01:11.855
Well, that's probably all law,

01:12.155 --> 01:14.575
but mostly those that are dealing with armed situations

01:14.575 --> 01:16.895
of harm conflict or the piece bit would be

01:16.895 --> 01:18.175
post-conflict scenarios.

01:18.975 --> 01:20.015
I guess it depends a little bit

01:20.015 --> 01:21.135
on your definition of gender.

01:21.715 --> 01:24.895
So in this book, we use gender as an analytical tool

01:25.435 --> 01:28.735
as opposed to thinking about gender as an identity marker.

01:29.475 --> 01:32.295
So rather than thinking which law, well,

01:32.295 --> 01:34.855
even if you took gender as an identity marker,

01:35.475 --> 01:37.495
all humans are gendered,

01:37.675 --> 01:39.775
or have some experience of being gendered,

01:40.155 --> 01:42.455
so you wouldn't have any laws

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or laws of war that don't have an impact on gendered humans.

01:47.035 --> 01:49.615
Uh, however, our definition of gender extends

01:49.615 --> 01:53.295
beyond the effects on specific gendered bodies

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or gendered experiences of armed conflict.

01:55.955 --> 01:58.055
To think about gender as a power relation

01:58.315 --> 02:00.295
and thinking about gender as a power relation,

02:00.705 --> 02:02.575
we're drawing on feminist work

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that thinks about intersectionality.

02:05.445 --> 02:07.095
Many people would be familiar with the work

02:07.095 --> 02:09.295
of Kimberly Crenshaw in this area.

02:10.035 --> 02:12.935
So intersectionality helps us think of gender

02:13.155 --> 02:16.855
as interlocking with other types of power relations

02:16.855 --> 02:20.775
and privileges in society, whether race, sexuality,

02:21.005 --> 02:25.735
ableism class, socioeconomic, structures as well.

02:26.315 --> 02:28.855
And so we think about gender as a power relation.

02:28.855 --> 02:31.895
That reinforces other power relations in society as well.

02:32.435 --> 02:34.415
Uh, we also think about, explore

02:34.435 --> 02:38.135
and use gender as an analytical tool, to examine gender

02:38.195 --> 02:40.055
as a, in its structural dimensions.

02:40.195 --> 02:43.375
So how gender is an organizing force,

02:43.515 --> 02:47.015
and particular in legal relations and legal institutions.

02:47.565 --> 02:51.255
What we also regard gender as a symbolic structure.

02:51.435 --> 02:53.095
So one that helps us read

02:53.155 --> 02:55.215
and understands concepts and the world.

02:55.715 --> 02:59.445
So it's a tool that we can use to read the laws of war,

02:59.455 --> 03:01.485
which is the specific focus of this book.

03:01.905 --> 03:03.845
So for our perspective, there is nothing

03:03.845 --> 03:05.405
that's not gendered,

03:05.465 --> 03:07.485
and in particular all of the laws,

03:07.625 --> 03:09.445
of on war and armed conflicts.

03:09.445 --> 03:11.605
We look particularly at collective security,

03:11.755 --> 03:13.085
international law, and the use

03:13.085 --> 03:16.085
of force international humanitarian laws of war.

03:16.085 --> 03:18.285
So they're the laws that govern what you can

03:18.285 --> 03:20.765
and can't do in an armed conflict as well

03:20.765 --> 03:22.045
as international criminal law.

03:22.045 --> 03:24.165
And we also have a chapter on countering terrorism,

03:24.365 --> 03:27.645
thinking about and analyzing the laws on counter-terrorism.

03:27.865 --> 03:30.125
So it's not so much about the effect they have on gendered

03:30.125 --> 03:33.045
bodies, but asking what kind of, analysis

03:33.105 --> 03:36.565
and conclusions we come up to up with when we apply gender

03:36.665 --> 03:39.285
as an analytical tool to these, kind

03:39.285 --> 03:42.285
of often more general areas, of international law.

03:42.715 --> 03:46.445
Some of those, are about just what, what kind

03:46.445 --> 03:48.845
of results from this very close reading of law

03:49.155 --> 03:52.205
with attention to gendered concepts,

03:52.465 --> 03:54.445
and the issues that emerge from that.

03:54.805 --> 03:57.805
I guess drawing on feminist analysis is the relationship

03:57.805 --> 03:59.725
between everyday sites of violence

03:59.905 --> 04:01.365
and international sites of violence

04:01.505 --> 04:04.605
and gender is a useful tool for examining that continuum

04:05.115 --> 04:07.685
because, particularly when we look at law,

04:07.705 --> 04:11.885
we see a repetition of legal forms in terms of how,

04:12.795 --> 04:14.725
laws are used to authorize

04:14.745 --> 04:17.645
or justify some forms of violence,

04:17.745 --> 04:20.925
and then used to, apprehend

04:21.185 --> 04:23.605
or, criminalize other sites of violence.

04:24.465 --> 04:28.965
Um, but we also draw on a news explore, as I said

04:28.965 --> 04:31.045
before, intersectional feminisms,

04:31.105 --> 04:34.085
but also decolonial research in the book.

04:34.545 --> 04:37.205
And this allows us to ask question about,

04:37.485 --> 04:40.445
questions about voice and expertise both in the mainstream

04:40.585 --> 04:44.365
and within feminist spaces about who gets to be expert

04:44.465 --> 04:46.885
and who's constructed as a victim of armed conflict.

04:47.145 --> 04:50.365
And we'll see, of course, that there gender dynamics,

04:50.465 --> 04:53.125
but also racialized dynamics around expertise

04:53.225 --> 04:56.525
and victim status, in, the laws

04:57.385 --> 04:59.325
and in terms of international institutions.

04:59.705 --> 05:03.445
Uh, we look at the issues that stem from the creation of 10

05:04.085 --> 05:06.445
Security council resolutions on women peace and security.

05:07.185 --> 05:10.765
Uh, and these tend to define the issues as either

05:10.765 --> 05:12.405
around protection and particular,

05:12.405 --> 05:15.645
particularly gendered protection for women,

05:16.035 --> 05:18.565
that are subject to conflict related sexual violence,

05:19.265 --> 05:22.045
as well as other forms of protection

05:22.145 --> 05:23.205
for gender-based violence

05:23.825 --> 05:28.285
and also promoting women's participation in armed conflict.

05:28.545 --> 05:29.725
So we look at those laws

05:29.745 --> 05:32.445
and the institutional frames that construct those laws.

05:32.545 --> 05:36.125
And perhaps, we also, one of the issues that we have is

05:36.125 --> 05:39.485
that that's a, a limited frame to come at the laws of war

05:39.485 --> 05:40.845
and understand the laws of war

05:40.875 --> 05:43.365
because of the kind of reduction of women to

05:44.085 --> 05:45.765
specific identities in those law.

05:46.025 --> 05:49.045
In in, in those resolutions. Well, there's 10 of them.

05:49.145 --> 05:51.445
So being hard, it's hard to pick out one.

05:51.745 --> 05:53.205
Uh, and they're quite, kind of,

05:53.205 --> 05:55.605
they extend across 20 years of security council work,

05:55.845 --> 05:57.805
although that work seems to have slowed now.

05:58.545 --> 06:02.245
Um, well, it's not so much that we would regard,

06:02.245 --> 06:03.365
that they should be revised

06:03.365 --> 06:04.965
or updated,

06:05.265 --> 06:08.485
rather than raise questions about whether the security

06:08.485 --> 06:11.205
council is really the appropriate vehicle

06:11.505 --> 06:13.205
for feminist legal reforms

06:13.665 --> 06:18.365
and questioning the turn to the security Council as a kind

06:18.365 --> 06:21.765
of protector of women or a promotion of, gendered

06:21.765 --> 06:23.685
and feminist ideas,

06:24.275 --> 06:25.605
because of the problems,

06:25.765 --> 06:27.045
structural dimensions of the council.

06:27.345 --> 06:30.885
But of course, the council's purpose is to govern,

06:31.115 --> 06:33.245
authorize, armed conflict.

06:33.465 --> 06:35.325
Um, so there's that question.

06:35.505 --> 06:38.485
And then at the same time in the book,

06:38.705 --> 06:40.685
we question the work that the Women Peace

06:40.685 --> 06:44.485
and Security Council resolutions do as resolutions issued

06:44.485 --> 06:45.605
by the security council.

06:45.985 --> 06:48.485
So although they're often created with good intention

06:48.585 --> 06:51.765
and with quite a lot of consultation with feminist networks,

06:51.905 --> 06:53.525
around the security council,

06:53.945 --> 06:56.205
at the same time they do do some work in terms

06:56.205 --> 07:00.285
of legitimating the work of the council itself, as well

07:00.505 --> 07:03.605
as constructing a very narrow kind of vision

07:03.625 --> 07:06.685
of women's lives in armed conflict properly.

07:06.685 --> 07:09.365
First of all, that law is not neutral,

07:10.745 --> 07:13.285
and I think that's a really important claim

07:13.285 --> 07:15.965
because sometimes when we think about feminist law reform,

07:16.305 --> 07:19.165
the assumption is that if we create a law, then

07:19.165 --> 07:21.365
that would be a good outcome for us.

07:21.905 --> 07:23.405
Uh, but of course,

07:23.515 --> 07:25.445
when we look at something like women peace

07:25.445 --> 07:28.005
and security, we can see that in fact,

07:28.145 --> 07:31.365
that's not a neutral project, that it sits

07:31.365 --> 07:34.165
inside an institution which will be structurally gendered

07:34.505 --> 07:37.845
and will kind of interlock with other power structures.

07:38.545 --> 07:43.045
Uh, at the same time, we hope that the book

07:43.805 --> 07:45.445
inspires, colleagues

07:45.705 --> 07:50.245
and scholars to look beyond laws that directly speak

07:50.305 --> 07:54.485
to gender, to think about areas such as the laws on the use

07:54.485 --> 07:58.005
of force, the laws on collective security laws on military

07:58.005 --> 08:01.325
technologies, counter-terrorism,

08:01.745 --> 08:03.685
and the regulation of what you can

08:03.685 --> 08:05.165
and can't do in armed conflict,

08:05.165 --> 08:07.965
which is international humanitarian law of armed conflict,

08:07.965 --> 08:09.365
international criminal law.

08:09.485 --> 08:11.645
I mean, there is a lot of feminist writing on international

08:11.845 --> 08:14.085
criminal law, but it tends to be about gendered crimes.

08:14.585 --> 08:17.685
So one of the things we hope readers take from this book is

08:18.185 --> 08:21.325
the analytical skill of thinking about gender as a tool

08:21.325 --> 08:26.005
to analyze any law as opposed to, creating

08:26.565 --> 08:29.685
gendered laws around specifically women's experience.

08:29.705 --> 08:32.045
And I guess another element of that is identifying

08:32.425 --> 08:36.245
and acknowledging, the role of military masculinities

08:36.425 --> 08:37.445
as part of the nature

08:37.545 --> 08:40.965
and structure of international laws on, on war and peace.

08:42.285 --> 08:46.845
A third, takeaway, would be a commitment to feminist

08:46.845 --> 08:49.365
and queer and also queer,

08:49.365 --> 08:53.205
post-colonial feminist approaches as kind of diversifying

08:53.385 --> 08:54.845
and expanding the way we

08:54.845 --> 08:57.405
Think about gender as an analytical tool.

08:57.705 --> 08:59.085
Uh, it's a big part of this book,

08:59.105 --> 09:01.005
but we are actually authoring,

09:01.095 --> 09:03.045
co-writing the second book at the moment.

09:03.465 --> 09:06.165
And thinking about queer feminist approaches

09:06.165 --> 09:09.965
to peace will be big part of the second book, as will the

09:10.475 --> 09:12.485
continued attention to,

09:12.555 --> 09:16.285
decoloniality in feminist approaches,

09:17.065 --> 09:21.045
and then all also using those theories as a tool

09:21.505 --> 09:22.725
to theorize peace.

09:23.065 --> 09:25.165
And I think one of our commitments

09:25.165 --> 09:28.725
as authors has always been to use the law of armed conflict

09:28.725 --> 09:32.645
or the laws of war more broadly, not just to fetishize

09:32.705 --> 09:34.565
and think about and talk about violence,

09:34.785 --> 09:37.685
but to pay attention to how we construct

09:37.685 --> 09:38.965
and think about peace.

09:39.425 --> 09:43.405
And all of us have a commitment to dislodging

09:44.065 --> 09:48.325
the over, attention to, conflict and violence,

09:48.625 --> 09:51.965
and often the failure of attention to peace.

09:51.985 --> 09:56.765
And we start the book by looking at actually the disparity

09:56.765 --> 09:58.525
between say, war studies

09:58.625 --> 10:02.485
and peace studies in academia where one, it's a kind of rich

10:03.055 --> 10:06.525
field with rich in the sense of like economically rich.

10:06.805 --> 10:09.405
I think peace studies a very rich field in and of itself,

10:09.505 --> 10:12.925
but you don't get the same attention as you do,

10:12.925 --> 10:14.245
to the study of on conflict.

10:14.385 --> 10:17.645
So we see feminist approaches as a tool to kind of

10:18.555 --> 10:21.645
reasserting attention to peace is absolutely integral

10:21.985 --> 10:24.805
to our discussions about, the laws of war.

00:00 - The Law of War and Peace, the gender analysis Volume one. it's a co-authored book, so I should say that. So speaking on behalf of my, three co-authors, Sarah Ti, Emily Jones and Sherry Lebinski, and all of us had a co-taught on a module called Gender Law and War.

00:19 - And it was in teaching the module, well, part of the idea of putting the idea the module together was to address what we saw as a shortfall in the broader, discipline of gender and conflict, where there was often an limited analysis of the legal regime, that regulated armed conflict. So we wanted to create a book that was in part a teaching tool, but also one that had a research agenda that spoke to the legal aspect of gender law and more.

00:52 - This is quite a lot of, literature on the gender and armed conflict element, but less so on the larger laws of war and peace. So we wanted to not just look at those that directly spoke to women, or gendered aspects of armed conflict, conflict, but subject all laws on war and peace. Well, that's probably all law, but mostly those that are dealing with armed situations of harm conflict or the piece bit would be

01:16 - post-conflict scenarios. I guess it depends a little bit on your definition of gender. So in this book, we use gender as an analytical tool as opposed to thinking about gender as an identity marker. So rather than thinking which law, well, even if you took gender as an identity marker, all humans are gendered, or have some experience of being gendered, so you wouldn't have any laws

01:42 - or laws of war that don't have an impact on gendered humans. however, our definition of gender extends beyond the effects on specific gendered bodies or gendered experiences of armed conflict. To think about gender as a power relation and thinking about gender as a power relation, we're drawing on feminist work that thinks about intersectionality. Many people would be familiar with the work of Kimberly Crenshaw in this area.

02:10 - So intersectionality helps us think of gender as interlocking with other types of power relations and privileges in society, whether race, sexuality, ableism class, socioeconomic, structures as well. And so we think about gender as a power relation. That reinforces other power relations in society as well. we also think about, explore and use gender as an analytical tool, to examine gender as a, in its structural dimensions. So how gender is an organizing force,

02:43 - and particular in legal relations and legal institutions. What we also regard gender as a symbolic structure. So one that helps us read and understands concepts and the world. So it's a tool that we can use to read the laws of war, which is the specific focus of this book. So for our perspective, there is nothing that's not gendered, and in particular all of the laws, of on war and armed conflicts.

03:09 - We look particularly at collective security, international law, and the use of force international humanitarian laws of war. So they're the laws that govern what you can and can't do in an armed conflict as well as international criminal law. And we also have a chapter on countering terrorism, thinking about and analyzing the laws on counter-terrorism. So it's not so much about the effect they have on gendered bodies, but asking what kind of, analysis

03:33 - and conclusions we come up to up with when we apply gender as an analytical tool to these, kind of often more general areas, of international law. Some of those, are about just what, what kind of results from this very close reading of law with attention to gendered concepts, and the issues that emerge from that. I guess drawing on feminist analysis is the relationship between everyday sites of violence and international sites of violence

04:01 - and gender is a useful tool for examining that continuum because, particularly when we look at law, we see a repetition of legal forms in terms of how, laws are used to authorize or justify some forms of violence, and then used to, apprehend or, criminalize other sites of violence. but we also draw on a news explore, as I said before, intersectional feminisms, but also decolonial research in the book.

04:34 - And this allows us to ask question about, questions about voice and expertise both in the mainstream and within feminist spaces about who gets to be expert and who's constructed as a victim of armed conflict. And we'll see, of course, that there gender dynamics, but also racialized dynamics around expertise and victim status, in, the laws and in terms of international institutions. we look at the issues that stem from the creation of 10 Security council resolutions on women peace and security.

05:07 - and these tend to define the issues as either around protection and particular, particularly gendered protection for women, that are subject to conflict related sexual violence, as well as other forms of protection for gender-based violence and also promoting women's participation in armed conflict. So we look at those laws and the institutional frames that construct those laws. And perhaps, we also, one of the issues that we have is

05:36 - that that's a, a limited frame to come at the laws of war and understand the laws of war because of the kind of reduction of women to specific identities in those law. In in, in those resolutions. Well, there's 10 of them. So being hard, it's hard to pick out one. and they're quite, kind of, they extend across 20 years of security council work, although that work seems to have slowed now. well, it's not so much that we would regard,

06:02 - that they should be revised or updated, rather than raise questions about whether the security council is really the appropriate vehicle for feminist legal reforms and questioning the turn to the security Council as a kind of protector of women or a promotion of, gendered and feminist ideas, because of the problems, structural dimensions of the council.

06:27 - But of course, the council's purpose is to govern, authorize, armed conflict. so there's that question. And then at the same time in the book, we question the work that the Women Peace and Security Council resolutions do as resolutions issued by the security council. So although they're often created with good intention and with quite a lot of consultation with feminist networks, around the security council,

06:53 - at the same time they do do some work in terms of legitimating the work of the council itself, as well as constructing a very narrow kind of vision of women's lives in armed conflict properly. First of all, that law is not neutral, and I think that's a really important claim because sometimes when we think about feminist law reform, the assumption is that if we create a law, then that would be a good outcome for us. but of course,

07:23 - when we look at something like women peace and security, we can see that in fact, that's not a neutral project, that it sits inside an institution which will be structurally gendered and will kind of interlock with other power structures. at the same time, we hope that the book inspires, colleagues and scholars to look beyond laws that directly speak to gender, to think about areas such as the laws on the use of force, the laws on collective security laws on military

07:58 - technologies, counter-terrorism, and the regulation of what you can and can't do in armed conflict, which is international humanitarian law of armed conflict, international criminal law. I mean, there is a lot of feminist writing on international criminal law, but it tends to be about gendered crimes. So one of the things we hope readers take from this book is the analytical skill of thinking about gender as a tool to analyze any law as opposed to, creating

08:26 - gendered laws around specifically women's experience. And I guess another element of that is identifying and acknowledging, the role of military masculinities as part of the nature and structure of international laws on, on war and peace. A third, takeaway, would be a commitment to feminist and queer and also queer, post-colonial feminist approaches as kind of diversifying and expanding the way we Think about gender as an analytical tool.

08:57 - it's a big part of this book, but we are actually authoring, co-writing the second book at the moment. And thinking about queer feminist approaches to peace will be big part of the second book, as will the continued attention to, decoloniality in feminist approaches, and then all also using those theories as a tool to theorize peace. And I think one of our commitments

09:25 - as authors has always been to use the law of armed conflict or the laws of war more broadly, not just to fetishize and think about and talk about violence, but to pay attention to how we construct and think about peace. And all of us have a commitment to dislodging the over, attention to, conflict and violence, and often the failure of attention to peace. And we start the book by looking at actually the disparity between say, war studies

09:58 - and peace studies in academia where one, it's a kind of rich field with rich in the sense of like economically rich. I think peace studies a very rich field in and of itself, but you don't get the same attention as you do, to the study of on conflict. So we see feminist approaches as a tool to kind of reasserting attention to peace is absolutely integral to our discussions about, the laws of war.

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