Looking for Men in Gender Policy: Political Masculinities in the UNSCR 1325 Women, Peace & Security Agenda (2006–2021)

This study examines how international and national gender policies construct, mobilize, and regulate political masculinities within the Women, Peace & Security (WPS) agenda. Focusing on UNSCR 1325 and its follow-up resolutions, as well as Dutch National Action Plans implemented by the Armed Forces in Afghanistan (2006–2021), the analysis investigates how masculinities function not merely as demographic categories but as structuring logics shaping authority, legitimacy, and security governance. While WPS documents acknowledge the central role of men in military, governmental, and civil-society settings, the gendered power relations underpinning these constructions remain insufficiently analyzed. Drawing on Foucault’s concept of power–knowledge, the study explores how WPS policy discourse reproduces, disciplines, or challenges dominant forms of militarized and bureaucratic masculinity. Building on feminist theories of embodiment and performativity (Connell), it examines how soldiers, policymakers, and interveners are positioned to enact particular masculine roles and how these performances differ across Dutch and Afghan sociopolitical contexts. Through postcolonial feminist insights (Spivak), the analysis interrogates how WPS frames Afghan masculinities as objects of governance while normalizing Western military and diplomatic masculinities, reinforcing hierarchies within global security practices. Afghanistan provides a crucial site for this analysis, as Dutch-led WPS implementation unfolded within a context where gendered political identities were historically contested and where the 2021 Taliban takeover starkly exposed the fragility and geopolitical stakes of global gender governance. Using Critical Frame Analysis supported by ATLAS.ti, the research traces shifts, tensions, and contradictions in the framing of men and masculinities from 2006 to 2021. By revealing how masculinities shape the implementation and limitations of WPS, the study contributes to emerging debates on political masculinities in international relations and demonstrates the need for more context-sensitive and transformative gender policy interventions.