The Political Economy of Nordic Gender Leadership in Peacebuilding

There is a trend in international policymaking towards treating 'women’s empowerment' as essential for effective and resilient natural resource management and conflict prevention in the Global South prevention (Ryan, 2022). This has culminated in a new UN policy agenda that specifically targets “women in conflict-affected settings” and their empowerment in the field of Natural Resource Management (NRM) for sustainable peace. At the same time, we can see an emergence and/or consolidation of gender hierarchies and the growing influence of gender experts in the field of international peacebuilding. Resolution 1325 demonstrated the willingness of some UN member states to exercise leadership in regard to the equal participation of women and the protection of their rights (Zahar & Deschamps-Laporte, 2023). The Nordic countries are among the most prominent international ‘leaders’ of gender equality. Recent gender-based interventions such as the UN Joint Programme on Promoting Gender-Responsive Approaches to Natural Resource Management for Peacebuilding, are mainly funded by Nordic states. This paper explores the political and economic function behind Nordic gender leadership in the field of sustainable peacebuilding. Building on critical, post-colonial and feminist contributions to political economy research, this paper conceptualizes Nordic gender leadership as an institutional embodiment of racialized and gendered capital and a symbolic representation of desirability, status and expertise. This builds on work such as by Sara R. Farris (2017), who analyzes the interaction between gendered representations and economic interests and practices behind a convergence of “women’s rights” agendas in Europe. By tracing the emergence and consolidation of Nordic gender leadership and the operation of Nordic women mediator networks, this paper aims to go beyond critical discourse and policy analysis, to consider both the material as well as ideological components of gender leadership in peacebuilding. To this end, this paper will explore where the power behind Nordic gender leadership comes from and how and where it operates today. This will help understand the power and purpose of Nordic leadership and funding for interventions based on the emancipation of women in NRM and peacebuilding, as well as the gendered relations of power that emerge and are sustained through these interventions.