Paul Higate

Peacekeepers, Masculinities, and Sexual Exploitation

My aim in this article is to analyze a set of gendered power relations played out in two postconflict settings. Based on interviews with peacekeepers and others, I argue that sexual exploitation of local women by male peacekeepers continues to be documented. I then turn to scholarly considerations of peacekeeper sexual exploitation, some of which accord excessive explanatory power to a crude form of military masculinity. This is underlined by similarly exploitative activities perpetrated by humanitarian workers and so-called “sex tourists.” In conclusion, I argue that a form of exploitative social masculinities shaped by socioeconomic structure, impunity, and privilege offers a more appropriate way to capture the activities of some male peacekeepers during peacekeeping missions. Finally, in underlining the conflation of military masculinities with exploitation, I pose the question of how to explain those military men who do not exploit local women while deployed on missions.

Engendering (In)security in Peace Support Operations

This article contributes towards ongoing debates on gender, security and post-conflict studies. Its focus is on the activities of male peace-keepers and their gendered relations with women and girls. Against the backdrop of the peacekeeping economies in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone, we focus on the consequencesof male peacekeepers’ construction and enactment of masculinity (and masculinities) on the security of local women. We concludeby suggesting that a deeper understanding of gender relations and security in peacekeeping contexts is necessary for any policy intervention in post-conflict settings.

Space, Performance and Everyday Security in the Peacekeeping Context

Studies of peacekeeping have helped to reveal the complexities, dilemmas and challenges of operations since their inception, and almost certainly into the future. Yet, despite the empirical and theoretical breadth of this canon, the field continues to be dominated by political science, development studies, international law and military studies, whose scholars tend to draw on ‘problem-solving’, macro-level and positivist perspectives in their writings. The impact of post-structural and post-positivist epistemologies developed in sociology, human geography and cultural studies remain marginal in the field. Given this, the present article seeks to complement and develop the study of peacekeeping through its framing of blue-helmet activity as embodied, spatial-security practice that is performed ‘out front’ for the ‘beneficiary’ audience. In so doing we draw on critical geopolitics, military/human geography and sociological theorizing with a focus on space and performance. Our main aim is to show how the concepts of space and performance can be used to illuminate perceptions of everyday security by recourse to a modest, illustrative empirical component based on fieldwork in Haiti, Kosovo and Liberia.

Martial Races and Enforcement Masculinities of the Global South: Weaponising Fijian, Chilean, and Salvadoran Postcoloniality in the Mercenary Sector

Set against the backdrop of the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, the private militarised security industry has grown rapidly over the last decade. Its growth into a multi-billion dollar enterprise has attracted the interest of scholars in international relations, legal studies, political science, and security studies who have debated questions of regulation and accountability, alongside the states control on the monopoly of violence. While these contributions are to be welcomed, the absence of critical sociological approaches to the industry and its predominantly male security contracting workforce has served to occlude the gendered and racialised face of the private security sphere. These dimensions are important since the industry has come increasingly to rely on masculine bodies from the global South in the form of so-called third country and local national men. The involvement of these men is constituted in and through the articulation of historical, neocolonial, neoliberal, and militarising processes. These processes represent the focus of the current article in respect of Fijian and Latin American security contractors. Their trajectories into the industry are considered in respect of both ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors, the likes of which differ in marked ways for each group. Specifically, states and social groups in Fiji, Chile, and El Salvador are appropriating what is described in the article as an ethnic bargain as one way in which to make a contribution to the global security sector, or—in direct regard to the Latin American context—to banish its more dangerous legacies from the domestic space. In conclusion, it is argued that the use of these contractors by the industry represents a hitherto unacknowledged gendered and racialised instance of the contemporary imperial moment. La industria de seguridad privada militarizada ha crecido rápidamente durante la última década, dentro del marco de las ocupaciones de Iraq y Afganistán. Su crecimiento a una industria de varios billones de dólares, ha atraído el interés de los académicos en relaciones internacionales, estudios legales, de ciencia política y seguridad, quienes cuestionan la reglamentación y rendición de cuentas, junto al control estatal sobre el monopolio de la violencia. Mientras esas contribuciones deben ser bienvenidas, la ausencia de los enfoques críticos sociológicos a la industria y su fuerza de contratación de seguridad predominantemente masculina, ha servido a ocluir la cara de género y raza de la esfera de la seguridad privada. Estas dimensiones son importantes desde que la industria ha venido valiéndose cada vez más en cuerpos masculinos del sur global, en la forma denominada como tercer país y de hombres locales y nacionales. La participación de estos hombres se constituye dentro y a través de la articulación de procesos históricos, neocoloniales, neoliberales y de militarización. Estos procesos representan el enfoque del presente artículo con respecto a los contratistas de seguridad fiyianos y latinoamericanos. Sus trayectorias dentro de la industria se consideran con respecto a ambos factores de “incitación” y “disuasión”, de las que difieren de maneras marcadas para cada grupo. Concretamente, los estados y grupos sociales en Fiyi, Chile, y el Salvador se están apropiando de lo que se describe en el artículo como una ganga étnica, como una manera de hacer una contribución al sector de seguridad global, o—en sentido directo al contexto latinoamericano—expulsar a sus legados más peligrosos del espacio doméstico. En conclusión, se sostiene que el uso de esos contratistas por la industria, representan hasta la fecha, un caso de género y racial ignorado del momento imperial contemporáneo. 以对伊拉克和阿富汗的占领为背景，私人军事安全行业在过去十年发展迅速。这一行业涉及动辄数十亿美元的业务，吸引了国际关系、法律研究、政治学和安全研究学者的兴趣，他们就管理和问责、以及国家对暴力的垄断控制等问题展开了辩论。这些贡献应该受到欢迎，批判社会学路径的缺失以及该行业男性合同安全人员的主导地位已封闭了私人安全行业的性别化和种族化面目。这些维面是重要的，因为这一行业日益依赖以所谓第三国和本国当地人形式来自全球南方的男子。这些男子的卷入是经由历史、新殖民、新自由主义和军事化等多种过程实现的。这些过程代表了本文的中心，即聚焦斐济和拉美的安全合同人员。他们进入该行业的轨迹是从“推”和“拉”两方面来考虑的，同类人的不同群体判然有别。尤其是，在斐济、智利和萨尔瓦多，国家和社会集团擅用本文所描述的族群交易，作为对全球安全行业（或直接对拉美）做贡献的一种方式，消除来自国内的更危险的遗产。结论是，该行业使用这些合同人员代表了当代帝国主义时刻迄今未被说明的性别化和种族化事例。 이라크와 아프카니스탄 점령 배경과는 달리 사적인 용병산업이 지난 10년간 급속하게 성장하였다. 수조원 산업으로 성장한 용병산업은 국가의 폭력독점과 더불어 규제와 신뢰 문제를 다루어 온 국제관계, 법학, 정치학, 안보연구 분야에서 학자들의 관심을 끌었다. 이러한 기여가 환영할만한 것이지만, 사회학적 접근과 남성이 압도적으로 많은 안보계약 노동력에 대한 비판적인 사회학적 접근의 부재는 젠더화되고 인종적인 사적 보안 영역을 가리는데 기여했다. 점차 용병 산업은 소위 남반부 제3세계 국가에서 온 남성과 해당 국가의 남성에 의존해왔기 때문에 이러한 차원은 중요하다. 이러한 사람들의 관여는 역사적, 신식민지적, 신자유주의적 그리고 군사화 과정의 접합을 통해서 이루어진다. 피지와 아메리카의 치안계약자에 관한 본 논문은 이러한 과정에 초점을 맞춘다. 산업으로 커지는 궤적이 ‘밀고’ 그리고 ‘당기는’ 요인들과 관련하여 다루어질 것이고, 그러한 요인들은 각 집단마다 대단히 다르다. 특히, 피지, 칠레와 엘살바도르의 국가와 사회집단들은 남미와 직접 관련하여 국내에서 더 위험한 유산을 제거함으로써 지구적 안전에 기여하는 방식의 하나로 본 논문에서 인종적 협상으로 그려진 방식을 사용하고 있다. 결론적으로 용병산업에서 이러한 계약자들을 고용하는 것은 지금까지 인식되지 못한 현대 제국주의의 젠더화된 그리고 인종화된 요소를 보여준다.

Positionality and Power: The Politics of Peacekeeping Research

Despite a growth in social studies of peacekeeping, there has been little written on field experiences in such contexts. This article examines the role of the researcher in influencing the research process and product in two peacekeeping sites, Liberia and Kosovo. Although researchers are often positioned in powerful ways vis-à-vis researchees, the multiplicity and complexity of their positionality are often overlooked. By drawing on examples from team research conducted, the article suggests that these positionings give rise to unconventional and contradictory power relations. By reflecting on the role of the researcher(s) and the politics of research itself, we hope to engender more conscientious peacekeeping research.

Reserve forces and the transformation of British military organisation: soldiers, citizens and society

Abstract In recent years, there has been a sharp growth in political and sociological interest in the British military. Set against the backdrop of the armed forces’ increasing presence in everyday life, alongside the organizations’ ongoing restructuring, the current paper focuses on the MoD’s problematic attempts to recruit 30,000 reservists by 2020; what has become known as the Future Reserves 2020 programme (FR2020). We argue that these changes are driven in part by the need to cut costs in defence. However, we also suggest that they are a reflection of the changing nature of modern military organisation, and the manner in which armed forces engage with the societies of which they are a part, and with the citizens that make up that society. We locate FR2020 programme in the context of a wider narrative about the changing nature of military organisation in contemporary western democracies, identifying structural, circumstantial and normative reasons for change. We also examine the specific challenges of implementing FR2020 in practice, including issues of recruitment and retention, integration and support, and relations with families and employers, drawing on the experience of comparator countries to do so. We conclude by considering the implications of these changes, both for the future of UK armed forces, and for the evolving nature of military-society relations in Britain.

Modern-Day Mercenaries? Cowboys, Grey Men, and the Emotional Habitus

Set against the backdrop of the rapid growth in the Private Military and Security Company (PMSC) industry, this chapter considers the deeper roots to contractors’s presentation of professional self. Based on field research by the author, it draws on the ideal types of high- versus low-profile performances of contractor security work that are mapped on to American national identity in the case of the former, and the British in regard to the latter. In theoretical terms, the concept of the emotional habitus is developed as one way to illuminate the embodied and emotional dimensions of these contrasting profiles that, in turn, can also be explained by reference to the historical and cultural contexts from which they come. Here, compensatory masculinities flowing from gendered insecurity are discussed in the American case, whereas the British class system is invoked to account for the low-profile, somewhat more ‘assured’ British security performance. In conclusion, the political repercussions of these profiles are briefly considered.

Book Review: Brenda M. Boyle Masculinity in Vietnam War Narratives. A Critical Study of Fiction, Films and Nonfiction Writings NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2009. 200 pp.

Although the jury is out on whether the ‘‘Vietnam Syndrome’’ has been vanquished as a consequence of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, critical scholarship in the conflict remains as vibrant as ever. In Masculinity in Vietnam War Narratives, Brenda Boyle provides provocative, cutting-edge literary analyses of fictional and nonfictional texts pertaining to the war, framed in their broader societal context alongside—and in dialogue with—the numerous identity movements of the 1960s. Boyle’s overall proposition is that the ‘‘monolithic masculinity’’ forged in the crucible of World War II where ‘‘boys became men’’ was assaulted as a consequence of the Vietnam debacle and the wider social flux within which it was nested and shaped. The social tumult characteristic of the period served to destabilize identity markers coalescing around the ‘‘American National Symbolic,’’ where gender, sexuality, and race were thrown into disarray. The specific legacy of these identity upheavals was the emergence of a ‘‘Man Dance’’ masculinity signaled by relativity, incoherence, and anxiety. No longer was the ‘‘flat bellied and steely eyed’’ (p. 5) monolithic masculinity of the preVietnam era taken as the unspoken benchmark of manliness. Rather, this traditional model became troubled, ever precarious, and in need of defense through conscious and carefully crafted performances tailored to specific audience expectations. To sustain the overall argument, Boyle’s study is organized around a Preface, an Introduction, and four chapters, followed by detailed chapter notes, a bibliography, and a brief index. The book cover features Charlie Sheen in a still from Platoon, with the book title in military script, and a mix of khaki green and camouflage on the spine and cover. In Chapter 1, ‘‘Don’t mean nothin,’’’ Boyle foregrounds a close analyses of race alongside processes of racialization. In conjunction with her enquiry conducted through a detailed reading of two white authored texts, The 13th Valley by Del Vecchio and Patrick Duncan’s combat film 84 Charlie MoPic, she draws on allied scholarly commentary interrogating these and other sources. In summary, the texts are noted to collude with the naturalization of whiteness, that once deconstructed and ‘‘raced,’’ reveal that race is constitutive of masculinity and that ‘‘to be racialized . . . is to be more body than mind . . . to be out of control . . . and as a consequence to be excluded from the category of monolithic masculinity’’ (p. 57). Chapter 2, ‘‘The Nam syndrome,’’ turns its attention to homosexuality and female masculinity in ways that expose the unconscious, heteronormative, and heterosexist proclivities shaping a number of critics’ analyses of Vietnam War narratives. Four texts are examined here and the malleability and contingency of 258 Men and Masculinities 14(2)