Women in the army, special forces and in conflict areas. How gender equality affects the National Security
Despite the fact that you can sometimes hear from US security experts in audiences, conferences and conversations, it is not a program of social justice. It is not a mandate for diversity, equality and inclusivity and a call to the Government to "do it correctly". And despite the name, it is not just about women. Focus has translated Jeffrey Brassa and Joan Johnson-Frise about how gender equality can provide national security.
Rather, the "woman, peace and safety" system is a tool for strengthening national security because of gender equality. Gender problems - for example, the inability of men to find or hold a wife - is often the main cause of conflict. Due to the policy of one child previously pursued in China, during the 2020 census, 34. 9 million men were more than women.
These men, who are called "bare branches" and who are not related to the society of marriage and children, are regarded by the Chinese government as a potential security problem. Considering China's tendency to unite their population, which now has more than 1. 4 billion people, in times of internal upheavals, concentrating on an external enemy, "naked branches" can be a security problem for the United States.
So far, the Ministry of Defense allocates the little budgetary funds for the program "Women, Peace and Security", and the integration of this program into the basic curricula of professional military education is slowly moving. Today, the United States has made more to ensure that the Allies and partners are aware of the principles of the concept than their own strength.
Collaboration in the security area, for example, has proven to be an effective means of maintaining the external implementation of the concept of "women, peace and security". But as long as the Ministry of Defense is misunderstanding, the opportunities will remain unfulfilled. Decades of careful empirical studies have unambiguously proven the relationship between gender equality and safety.
In particular, if the country is extremely high in gender inequality, it is more than twice as unstable, more than three times more often has a more autocratic, less efficient and more corrupt government, and more than one and a half times more often undergoes violence and instability. In addition, if the levels of gender inequality and domestic violence within the country are high, then the likelihood of applying violence by the state at the international level is also increasing.
Violence gives rise to violence. The "Women, Peace and Security" system is based on four basic principles: participation of women in all aspects of security issues; protection of women from gender violence; prevention of conflicts and all forms of violence in conflict and post -conflict situations; meeting the needs of women and vulnerable groups in recovery after crises.
Participation means giving women not only a place at the negotiation table, but also the rights of voice, as they bring information, points of view and skills to solve problems that increase the potential for eliminating the main causes of conflict. The protection component acknowledges that gender violence is often used in order to suppress women's voice.
Within the direction of "prevention" it is strongly recommended to use gender aspects in the assessment of potential conflicts to stop the conflict before it begins. Post -conflict aid provides the best opportunity to transform old discriminatory systems into more egalitarian. The current efforts of the US Government to promote the concept of "women, peace and security" with the help of available resources demonstrate various ways of attracting funding.
In July 2022, Congress published a report evaluating the progress of four US government agencies responsible for the implementation of the 2017 Law. According to the report, the State Department has invested $ 110 million and the US Agency for International Development - $ 239 million. The Ministry of Defense, in turn, spent $ 5. 5 million. Although this is a meager amount due to the amount of the overall budget of the Armed Forces, the ministry can use synergy with other agencies.
For example, the State Department annually allocates about $ 400 million for the International Military Education and Training Program aimed at strengthening partner countries, improving human rights situation, providing professional military education and maintaining communication between countries. This program is governed by the Ministry of Defense, combining powers and financing.
Security cooperation is traditionally focused on "rigid" events such as foreign military sales, direct commercial and hybrid sales, weapons rent, military unions, joint military training and training. These measures strengthen the operational compatibility to increase defense efficiency, but can also serve as a tool for establishing relationships that are important for women, peace and safety. An example is the case of the purchase of Jordan in 2015 UH-60 Blackhawk.
The Hashimite kingdom lacked the qualified medical and linguistic points of view of male pilots who could undergo an American flight preparation for the desired delivery date. The program was used as an incentive to first start recruiting, training and support for women's military pilots. As a result, Jordan changed her domestic policy, supporting the training of women pilots. This program continues today, expanding and covering fighters.
In the development of this program, the National Guard of Colorado, as part of the States Partnership Program, conducted new pilots to discuss gender integration problems and organized training. This gave the third flow of financing and authority, given the program of international military education and language training, financing of foreign military sales for aviation training and measures of the National Guard.
Recently, security cooperation has been involved in components such as economic development, human rights, environmental protection and relationships. In this context, US safety cooperation programs also contribute to the implementation of "women, peace and security" principles.
The Ministry of Defense may participate in and already participates in some of these "soft" measures that are classified as the construction of defense institutions, the activities of the commander or similar programs for both cooperation and security assistance.
Earlier this year, Takhin Montoya, who is currently holding the position of Air Force Advisor on Gender Issues, told us how effective it could be "soft" cooperation in the security industry, staying from 2011 to 2102 at the American Transit Center in Manas (Kyrgyzstan) . Having received $ 318 million in direct investment from the United States, Kyrgyzstan was on huge pressure from Russia, which demanded to close the transit center.
This was made in the form of generous financial proposals and an active campaign in media sponsored by Russia, which highlights the negative effects of American presence. In order to confront this, the US government through a defense security agency launched a humanitarian aid program under which every US -based transit center had to have a humanitarian aid coordinator.
As Montoya describes this: "I announced to be a coordinator of the humanitarian aid of the 376 expeditionary operational group, which involved traveling to the city of Bishkek for meetings with women from the university to discuss similarity and differences in how to be a woman in our countries.
, for 6 months, our detachment conducted 17 humanitarian missions at the local level, which began with meetings with community leaders to discuss problems, but later included reconstruction of playground The most beloved is the donation of more than 200 leafy mattresses for rural children and the elderly, as well as donations of more than 200 winter jackets for the community.
With the help of a detachment who was engaged in volunteering on their "weekends", our detachment worked 850 and gathered more than 4, $ 5,000 donations. " In the end, the program did not prevent the closure of the transit center in Manas in 2014, but Montoya believes that the efforts of its "soft influence" unit helped to continue the existence of the base for several years. During his work, the base, known as the gate to Afghanistan, "transported more than 5.
3 million servicemen to and from Afghanistan, and also worked tens of thousands of cargoes and refueling. " Outside the conflict zones, military commands are also involved in the security in the field of safety aimed at developing the principles of "women, peace and safety", especially in expanding women's participation in military activities and security.
The activities of the Southern Command include seminars, conferences, podcasts and, partnership with "Women in International Security", development of a regional partnership instrument, or evaluation letter, "to integrate the principles of gender equality and agenda [women, peace and safety] Central, South America and the Caribbean.
" The African command has held a number of events, in particular in partnership with the North Carolina Partnership Program of the National Guard, and created a women's military-law network of African military specialists, which was aimed at transferring women to the region of advanced legal experience. Recently, other commands have also intensified activities related to women, peace and security.
In the end, the University of Defense Cooperation on Security provides opportunities to promote the concept of "Women, Peace and Security" among those who are engaged in security cooperation. At a seminar on security cooperation, which took place in September 2022, the University launched a whole organizational effort with a thorough scientific analysis of how the implementation of the Law on Women, Peace and Security from 2017 helps to achieve US national security goals.
This was especially important given the fact that professional military education was identified as a key path to implementing the framework program, both domestically and abroad, especially if time is specially allocated for training and training. It seems to many that when working in the Middle East or in Central Asia, cultural norms in partner countries are the greatest obstacle to the implementation of the program "Women, Peace and Security".
However, our studies and the above stories indicate that these countries often seek to achieve progress in women's participation. On the contrary, the biggest obstacle is often the lack of awareness of the US government.
The Rand's report for 2023 contains a clearer coordination of rhetoric and actions on women, peace and security: "Many of our partners pay attention to the fact that the United States emphasizes the importance of taking into account gender aspects, and work on improving the implementation of principles [women , peace and safety].
However, they also notice when we are "lagging behind" - for example, during exercises in Eastern Europe, when a young foreign officer demanded to explain why there are no American women among the audience. " Increasing awareness and knowledge of women, peace and safety in the US Armed Forces will not happen immediately, but with a serious approach, this can be achieved.
There are many opportunities to use existing programs and funding flows to perform congress mandates and promote US interests around the world. Security cooperation programs are intended to promote national security by strengthening the relations, potential and opportunities of partner countries. When the US government understands how women contribute to this, peace and safety, you can do a lot more at the external level.
Jeffrey Brass - US Air Force Colonel, Associate Professor of the Joint Forces College of Staff and Officer with Foreign States, who has repeatedly performed security and security assistance tasks. Joan Johnson-Friz-Honorary Professor of the Naval College, Senior Researcher of Women in International Security and author of Women, Peace, and Security: An Introduction. The expressions expressed only by the authors, not the US government, the Ministry of Defense or the US Air Force.