Beyond the Local. Toward a ‘Gender Turn’ in Peacebuilding?

In an era where frequency of intra-state wars remain high, the need for securing lasting and gender-sensitive non-violent conflict resolutions is crucial. In this configuration, both concepts of peacebuilding and gender have become extremely topical in the IR literature, while remaining largely heterogeneous, located at the cross-road of a wide range of disciplinary, ontological, epistemological, methodological and programmatic debates and divides. Acknowledging the primary importance of taking stock of the existing literature while perceiving the need for a more coherent and inclusive approach in the domain of gender and peacebuilding, this article proposes to present, in a condense manner, the main themes, approaches, debates, lines of contentions and agreements that are characterizing the two fields. To do so, the present article proceeds in three steps. First, it questions the peacebuilding literature, examining the main lines of agreements and fractures at the conceptual, theoretical, and programmatic levels, noting in particular the central role of the ‘local turn’ in peacebuilding. Second, the article investigates how has the feminist literature approached and interconnected with peacebuilding, noting the main lines of divisions and opportunities for fruitful exchanges. In a third section, the UN Peacebuilding Architecture and its integration of the Women, Peace and Security agenda is presented to survey the different patterns of gender and peacebuilding policy implementation with a focus on the local-global nexus. Ultimately, this study seek to present plausible ways forward to develop locally grounded, gender-integrated conceptualization and governance of peacebuilding.