Papers on gender and security presented at EISS conferences and workshops, newest first. 2026-06-11T12:00:00Z https://eiss-europa.com/feeds/themes/gender-and-security.xml European Initiative for Security Studies https://eiss-europa.com/papers/2026-artistic-resilience-building-in-lithuania-s-local-security-policy 2026-06-11T12:00:00Z 2026-06-11T12:00:00Z Anna Luisa Reinhardt

**Abstract** Lithuanian orphans sing patriotic songs at Šakiai Diakonija, my diaconal workplace, located just a 20-minute drive from the Russian border—and roughly 2 minutes for the medium-range missiles stationed in Kaliningrad. Recentring human security in the investigation of **children’s lives at EU borders**, this contribution offers valuable insights into **pre-conflict preventive security policy**. These Lithuanian Children exemplify the impact of art and music in building social resilience. Their case study reaches beyond the traditional policy programmes implemented in Lithuania, including rearmament policies, civilian drone operation, and evacuation trainings. **Non-traditional resilience-building** with vulnerable youth at the Russian border emphasises everyday artistic methods, targeting higher **psychological resilience** and thus offering youth the tools to deal with the adverse impact of rising military tensions and potential armed conflict. This approach aims to prevent severe psychological pathologies, with positive outcomes for both **individual lives and national health systems**. Following a localised bottom-up approach to security studies, this qualitative case study touches on novel conflict prevention policies that address children’s lived reality within European security politics. The case study draws on **practical social work with orphans, children with disabilities, and vulnerable youth in Lithuania**. It is inherently **transdisciplinary**, employing theory of traditional international relations as well as artistic studies. Building on the **feminist-constructivist** assumption that the personal and political are two interrelated spheres, it pays attention to the political discourses around Lithuanian state security, and their effect on youth’s personal development. Vice versa, lived realities constitute the starting point in constructing national identities, as evident in children’s selecting patriotic songs for the diaconical Christmas celebration. The transdisciplinary, intersectional feminist perspective thus sheds light on the connections between everyday practices and macro-political security. **All in all, this contribution highlights how a bottom-up, resilience-driven preventive approach to conflict reshapes local security policy.**

https://eiss-europa.com/papers/2026-financial-in-security-tiktok-and-the-far-right-pipeline 2026-06-11T12:00:00Z 2026-06-11T12:00:00Z Clara Jammot

While the relationship between far-right extremism, libertarianism, and neoliberalism has long been established, algorithmic recommendation as well as the lucrative professionalisation of content creation are leading platforms like TikTok to impact how financial (in)security feeds into the far-right’s proliferation. The rise in influencers promoting an individualistic ‘entrepreneurial mindset’ alongside aspirational lifestyles that are rooted in politicized identities has encouraged the consumption of narratives and routines that promote far-right values. Drawing on ontological security theory and discourse analysis, this paper asks: how do the ontological (in)security narratives of finance-related content relate to far-right ideology? Amongst the 3,246 TikTok posts and 19,805 comments analysed for this paper, three main ontological security narratives relate to far-right extremism. The first, and most dominant, interprets the red-pilled concept of ‘breaking out of the matrix’ as the act of achieving freedom from a perceived oppressive financial system by accumulating wealth and material resources. In addition to promoting a neoliberal individualist imperative that aligns with the far-right, this narrative frequently displayed senses of shame due to financial instability. The second narrative draws on far-right conservativism to blend financial aspiration with gender, framing success and financial security as dependent on traditional gender roles (e.g., tradwives) and on extremist masculinist views about romantic partners (e.g., choosing between supportive wives and ‘gold-diggers’). The final narrative focuses on the ‘influencer saviour’ which points to the connection between finance, religion and the far-right – specifically in how users address their own ontological insecurity by relying on, and idolizing, influencers who appear to have achieved financial stability. At a time of financial insecurity, developing this facet of the online far-right is crucial to not only better understand the radicalization processes threatening democracy but also to identify the topics that policymakers can address to counter the rise of far-right extremism.

https://eiss-europa.com/papers/2026-gendering-non-traditional-security-a-comparative-analysis-of-sexual-violence-rec 2026-06-11T12:00:00Z 2026-06-11T12:00:00Z Teodora Stoicescu

This paper will focus on the gender-based violence during armed conflicts as a non-traditional security challenge that is affecting the post-conflict development, stability and any peacebuilding effort. The analysis will be situated within feminist studies and will focus on how post-conflict approaches towards policies, reconciliation and reparations need to address sexual violence and the importance of recognising it as a crime that will deeply impact society. Through a comparative case study of Colombia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the main focus will be on how the reconciliation frameworks have been implemented and whether the gender layer has also been taken into account while the states have begun their healing process. In the case of Bosnia-Herzegovina, even though the ICTY has been a role model in the international jurisprudence scene and has defined for the first time since the World War 2 trials the term "rape" as a war crime, the post-conflict resolutions and reconciliation were proven to be too inconsistent in the face of the true destruction the Bosnian War has brought, while also having trouble helping with their survivors. In the case of Colombia, the non-traditional approach towards gender-based violence during the war has proven to be right, and the transitional justice was incorporated in the peace-building efforts and, later on, the international jurisprudence. The paper will also focus on the differences between the conflicts. Still, it will highlight the most important factors in which gender-based violence has succeeded: underdevelopment, inequality, patriarchy, but also the issue of land, resources and ethnic conflicts. Moreover, the importance of gender-based frameworks is proven to be a significant non-traditional security challenge, but when addressed and implemented correctly, it can bring a change in the reconciliation process and also build a more stable and durable post-conflict stability, while still caring for its citizens and survivors.

https://eiss-europa.com/papers/2026-no-woman-s-land-securitisation-of-female-forced-migration-in-afghanistan 2026-06-11T12:00:00Z 2026-06-11T12:00:00Z Jéssica da Costa Pereira

Forced migration is a phenomenon present in globalisation’s dynamics, as is the absence of women in the conceptualisation of the processes that shape the lives of citizens. At the intersection of these two realities, we aim to analyse female forced migration as a security issue, analysing the absence of gender in the definition of forced migrant by the United Nations. From a methodological standpoint, this research draws upon Feminist Security Studies, as it conceptualises the intrinsic relationship between gender and security. These key terms guide the semi-structured interviews with thirty Afghan forced migrant women, methodological instrument used to include the realities of women, in their own words. By conceptualising gender as a social and cultural construct, and acknowledging that it shapes the experiences of forced migrant women, we contextualised the background from which they depart: Afghanistan. More than four decades of war, compounded by the Taliban’s second takeover, have profoundly eroded women’s rights, prompting the forced migration of Afghan women. Three conclusions are drawn. Firstly, for the majority of the interviewed women, as forced migrants, security is linked to protection from gender-based violence, freedom from fear and human rights protection, and gender specific barriers remain overlooked in the migration journey. Secondly, the realities of women are not represented in the definition of forced migrant. The absence of gender leads to a gap in gender-disaggregated data on migrants flows and a lack of acknowledgment of the gendered challenges along the migration journey. Furthermore, it leads to the invisibility of policies that materially impact women’s lives and security. Thirdly, we acknowledge that in a spectrum of non-politicised, through politicised, and to securitised - existential threat, justifying emergency measures beyond normal political procedures - female forced migration is a security issue, as it is a matter of a particular saliency and political urgency.

https://eiss-europa.com/papers/2026-the-gender-politics-of-lio-contestation-a-research-agenda 2026-06-11T12:00:00Z 2026-06-11T12:00:00Z Elisabetta Ginevra Iida

Since the end of the Cold War, international security has been guaranteed by the so-called Liberal International Order(Ikenberry 2011; Mearsheimer 2019). But its implementation has never been peaceful (Ikenberry 2010) and has always been subject to important contestations (Alcaro 2018). Adopting a constructivist framework (Wendt 1999), we consider the Liberal Order as a system made also by precise values, norms, and ideas (Kundnani 2017). Among them, there is without doubt a precise dimension of values related to gender (Hafner-Burton and Pollack 2002), expressed in key elements as “Women, Peace and Security” resolutions or the Fourth World Women's Conference in Beijing (1995). While politics related to gender has not traditionally been a core field of IR, the role that it assumed in the Liberal International Order has made it a key element of contestation of the Order itself. This research aims to show the role of the gender dimension in the contestation (Orchard and Wiener 2022) of the Order. It aims to provide a conceptual framework to consider how gender has been used in different ways and with different aims to contest the international order by various actors. This research develops a typology based on three axes: while having in common the use of the gender dimension, the actors differ in the impact aimed at International Order -either revisionist or reformist-, in the way of contesting the gender dimension - either progressive or conservative- and in the driver to do so - either ideological or strategic. Analyzing three key dimensions of the social construction and contestation, both institutional and societal, of the international order - Foreign Policy, Ideological production, and social movements- this research aims to provide a comprehensive framework of analysis to understand in what ways gender has become a key terrain of normative contestation of the Liberal International Order.

https://eiss-europa.com/papers/2018-what-european-women-really-want-a-critical-feminist-approach-to-understanding-ge 2018-06-15T12:00:00Z 2018-06-15T12:00:00Z Karen Devine

Given consistent Eurobarometer data-based claims by the EU, that 'large majorities in all Member States would like to see “more Europe” in security and defence' (CSDP), and in the wake of EU legislation establishing an EU army ("PESCO") passed in December 2017 to operationalise the EU's mutual defence clause (Article 42.7 TEU), it is timely to critically examine the relationship between the use of opinion poll data and EU member-states' true public preferences on security and defence, with a particular focus on gender. Whilst there is a literature on feminist/critical security studies, and a literature on gender and public attitudes to the use of force, to date, there is has been little integration of the two fields. This paper problematises the current discourses on public support for EU CSDP and provides a data-based, feminist critique of how the European Union uses surveys to capture public attitudes to European Security and Defence Policy.