Women and children and elephants as justification for force

ABSTRACT This article examines the use of force described as ‘robust peacekeeping’. Through a review of innovation in Security Council practice – in particular, thematic resolutions, targeted sanctions and robust peacekeeping – the role normative assertions of the Council play in underpinning new forms of force are assessed. Understood in this context, feminists and others who have agitated for inclusion within the work of the Security Council are counselled against pursuing projects that expand the powers of the institution while there remains a lack of checks on how force is mobilised. The reluctance of feminist and/or critical engagement to address the structural aspects of institutional spaces, such as the Security Council, consequently risks a legitimation of the institution without significant gains in terms of gender equality or, if viewed through recent resolutions establishing targeted sanctions against wildlife poachers, for the protection of elephants.