Stéfanie von Hlatky is the Canada Research Chair on Gender, Security, and the Armed Forces, full professor of political studies at Queen’s University, and Associate Dean of Research in the Faculty of Arts and Science. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from Université de Montréal in 2010, where she was also Executive Director for the Centre for International Peace and Security Studies. She’s held positions at Georgetown University, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Dartmouth College, ETH Zurich and was a Fulbright Visiting Research Chair at the University of Southern California’s Centre for Public Diplomacy. She has published in the Canadian Journal of Political Science, the Canadian Foreign Policy Journal, Contemporary Security Policy, International Politics, the Journal of Global Security Studies, International Journal, European Security, Asian Security, as well as the Journal of Transatlantic Studies and has two books with Oxford University Press, as well as four edited volumes with Georgetown University Press and McGill-Queen’s University Press. Her latest book is Deploying Feminism: The Role of Gender in NATO Military Operations (2022). She is the founder of Women in International Security – Canada and the Honorary Colonel of the Princess of Wales’ Own Regiment.

Abstract:

International organizations and governments want to increase women's participation in military operations and peacebuilding. Gender equality is increasingly seen as the antidote to conflict, a key factor in achieving stability. While feminist activism inspired the emergence of these norms on gender and conflict, they were institutionalized through the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, with the military at the forefront of those changes. Showcasing examples from her latest book Deploying Feminism, Dr. Stéfanie von Hlatky will explain the process of how the military has been delegated authority to advance gender equality as part of their activities, while simultaneously tackling increasingly complex threats. Drawing upon fieldwork and interviews, she illustrates how NATO, the world's foremost alliance, has even embedded these ideas in the planning and execution of its missions. For troops deployed on NATO missions, this often means seeking out women in their operating area to improve intelligence gathering activities. While this helps the mission, does it help women and conflict-affected communities? Because of the military's focus on operational effectiveness above all else, von Hlatky argues that there is a distortion of WPS norms, as gender equality concerns fade into the background. Looking at NATO's ongoing operations in Iraq, Kosovo, and the Baltics, she scrutinizes the process by which Women, Peace and Security norms are militarized and put at the service of operational effectiveness. Further, she shows why an adjustment is necessary for gender equality to become a true planning priority, to achieve more sustainable security outcomes.