Description
At a moment when International Relations faces resurgent militarism, the global spread of anti-gender politics, and the re-securitization of everyday life, revisiting what we mean by “security” has become urgent. Despite decades of critique, the discipline remains largely shaped by state-centric and masculinized understandings of protection, marginalizing feminist and decolonial perspectives. Drawing on fifteen semi-structured interviews with Colombian feminist activists and analysis of peace and security policies, this paper explores how feminist movements in Colombia have re-imagined the meaning and practice of security during and after the 2016 Peace Agreement. I conceptualize this dynamic as “gendering security and securing gender.” Gendering security captures feminist efforts to challenge militarized logics and redefine peace around justice, care, and inclusion. Securing gender, conversely, highlights how states and international institutions—amid anti-gender backlash—regulate and depoliticize feminist claims by stabilizing normative gender roles. By tracing how Colombian activists navigated and transformed these tensions while embedding gender-sensitive provisions in the peace accord, the paper shows how feminist actors contest security from below. This case offers a critical re-thinking of how International Studies can respond to global backlash and remain fit for a more inclusive and uncertain future.
