Examining the Impact of Peacekeeping Operations on Soldiers' Militarized Masculinities: The Case of Korean Peacekeeping Soldiers

Abstract

Gender studies of militaries and the dynamics of war suggest that ideas of militarized masculinity are central to the creation of soldiers who are willing to fight and perhaps die in combat. With the rise of national militaries? involvement in peacekeeping operations, feminist scholarship has asked whether employing soldiers as agents for peace is appropriate, or whether involvement in peacekeeping shapes different forms of militarized masculinities. Some scholars argue that due to militarized masculinities that are often associated with violence, aggressiveness, and misogyny, soldiers are unlikely to be effective at achieving peace. On the contrary, other scholars argue that involvement in peacekeeping can produce alternative militarized masculinities that adopt some important qualities for effective peacekeeping such as empathy, respect, and equality. To contribute original research to feminist literature on this question, the thesis examines the impact of peacekeeping on soldiers? militarized masculinities with the case study of Korean soldiers. The field research involved two rounds of interviews with two groups of Korean men: a group consisting of men who completed military service in Korea but who were not deployed in peacekeeping operations; and a group consisting of men who were deployed in various types of peacekeeping abroad. By comparing these two groups, the thesis concludes that while involvement in peacekeeping does not fundamentally challenge the gender norms traditional militarized masculinities rely on, it does contribute to constructing alternative militarized masculinities which are more open to empathy, respect, caring and equality.