gender mainstreaming in counter-terrorism policy: building transformative strategies to counter violent extremism

This book analyzes policy and programming challenges for gender mainstreaming in counter-terrorism, with examples from comparative case studies of countering violent extremism programming.

Interest in the issue of gender in security policy and programming has grown over the past several years, often with increasing pressure at the international and national levels to ensure commitment to inclusion of women or a gender lens. This book provides in-depth investigation of how gender can be effectively understood and included in the security process. Firstly, it adds a timely and effective contribution to the academic conversations around gender in security and how counter-terrorism programming can be implemented with human security goals. Secondly, it offers recommendations for policy makers and practitioners seeking to improve the effectiveness of countering violent extremism program design, implementation, and evaluation. A gender analysis framework is built across the chapters, drawing from various feminist analytical perspectives used in International Relations theory. The learning from this comparative gender analysis is encapsulated in the last chapter through some recommendations to help move counter-terrorism policy toward more transformative gender mainstreaming strategies.

This book will be of much interest to students of counter-terrorism studies, countering violent extremism, gender studies, security studies, and International Relations.

Jessica White is a Senior Research Fellow in the Terrorism and Conflict group at the Royal United Services Institute, London, UK, and has a PhD from the University of Birmingham, UK. She also acts as a Gender Advisor on multiple projects, including for the European Union and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.