Moving Beyond Antagonisms: Changing Masculinities in Post-Conflict Militaries

ABSTRACT In this paper, I theorize and empirically illustrate how security sector reforms (SSR) can transform violence-centred masculinities in post-conflict militaries. I argue that substantial change of such gender roles depends on challenging the power that is institutionally inscribed into the constructed antagonisms between (1) men and women, (2) fighters and civilians, and (3) perpetrators and victims of violence. A case study on changing masculinities within the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) via SSR illustrates this argument. During the violent conflict in Liberia between 1989 and 2003, the AFL infamously perpetrated large-scale violence against civilians, enacting particularly violent forms of masculinity. After the war, the AFL was dissolved and rebuilt with an emphasis on human rights and, partly, gender mainstreaming. Drawing from interviews with multiple stakeholders and practice-theoretical reasoning, the paper renders empirically and theoretically tangible that SSR can change institutional constructions of masculinity by challenging socially constructed antagonisms that give power to men, fighters, and perpetrators.