Understanding the gender regime in the European External Action Service
| DOI | 10.1177/0010836719895296 |
| Published date | 01 June 2020 |
| Date | 01 June 2020 |
| Author | Laura Chappell,Roberta Guerrina |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0010836719895296
Cooperation and Conflict
2020, Vol. 55(2) 261 –280
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0010836719895296
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Understanding the gender
regime in the European
External Action Service
Laura Chappell and Roberta Guerrina
Abstract
The EU has been a key actor in shaping European gender regimes in post-war Europe. There is a
substantial amount of work on the role of the EU as a gender actor, particularly in employment
and social policy. The adoption of and consistent referral to equality as a fundamental value of the
EU raises important questions about the way the EU promotes ‘soft’ values in an international
setting, through its security and defence policy, particularly as the EU is trying to promote itself
as a normative actor. Hence, this article sets out to analyse where gender equality, as a policy
frame, is located within the European External Action Service (EEAS). Through an investigation
into whether the core normative principles of gender equality and mainstreaming have permeated
this policy domain, we then focus on how the EEAS reflects the EU’s gender regime, which is
informed by Walby’s framework, and how this shapes mainstream security and defence policies.
We find that the neo-liberal foundations of the EU permeate the way the EEAS incorporates
the principle of equality, leading to a shallow understanding that focuses on adding women into
existing structures.
Keywords
CSDP, European External Action Service, gender, gender regimes
Introduction
Since the inclusion of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) within the
Maastricht Treaty (1992), the EU has set out to become a key foreign policy actor to
complement its expanding economic role. Through the creation of new institutions and
policy instruments, such as the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), the EU
has enhanced its role in the international arena, thus presenting it with an opportunity to
promote its interest and norms externally. Key to understanding the role of the EU as an
external actor is the role of fundamental values, as established by the Treaties. These
define the scope of EU action, its role and ambition. It is thus interesting to note that
research looking at the diffusion of foundational norms from the communitized fields to
Corresponding author:
Laura Chappell, Department of Politics, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, Surrey, UK.
Email: l.chappell@surrey.ac.uk
895296CAC0010.1177/0010836719895296Cooperation and ConflictChappell and Guerrina
research-article2020
Article
262 Cooperation and Conflict 55(2)
external affairs has been lacking. Aside from the debate instigated by Manners’ (2002)
work on Normative Power Europe, the focus of mainstream research has been on the
position of security and defence, as policy domains, within the architecture of the EU.
Although the focus of our analysis seeks to advance the research on gender and CSDP, it
also provides important insights for feminist security scholars by introducing the concept
of gender regimes to the field of security studies.
This article thus sets out to investigate the role of the EU as a gender actor in foreign
and security policy, particularly focusing on where gender can be located institutionally
and with respect to promoting gender norms as part of the CSDP portfolio. Gender equal-
ity is often cited as a foundational norm of the EU, particularly in the communitized
fields – for example, employment (MacRae, 2010). As Kronsell (2012: 114) explains, the
EU’s role as an actor in external affairs ‘emerged in a context in which gender equality
policies and gender mainstreaming were already well known in other policy areas in the
EU’. This points to the impact of the internal dynamics, practices and structures on pol-
icy outcomes. For instance, Kronsell draws attention to military gender regimes in the
EU military committee. It should therefore follow that the institutionalization of foreign
and security policy would lead to greater opportunities for the inclusion of a gender-
sensitive approach in this policy field. The diffusion of this norm into areas of foreign
and security policy, however, remains largely on the margins. What this means is that
gender appears as a set of specific recommendations in the Women, Peace and Security
Agenda (WPS) on gender equality and/or women’s empowerment, but has not yet been
mainstreamed to all areas of foreign policy, security and defence (Guerrina et al., 2018).
Our research puzzle relates to this tension between what the Treaties, and key institu-
tional actors, say are core EU values – for example, equality and mainstreaming – and
what the EU does to operationalize those values in areas of ‘high politics’ that are tradi-
tionally seen as gender neutral/free. The starting point for this analysis is a recognition
that institutions are themselves gendered and shaped by complex processes, values and
structures constitutive of particular gender regimes and/or gender orders (Weiner and
MacRae, 2014). Our analysis turns to the European External Action Service (EEAS) as a
site for gender politics, posing the following research question: Where is gender equality,
as a policy frame, located within the EEAS? This overarching question allows us to map
how the principles of equality and gender mainstreaming, as defined by the Treaties,
have permeated this policy domain, and open a space for our second research question:
How does the EEAS reflect the EU’s gender regime and, how does this shape the (main-
stream) policies that are developed by this institution?
Understanding the role of the EU as a gender actor across a variety of policy domains
provides important insights into the continuous development of a European gender
regime that results from a process of negotiation, adaptation and contestation between
different components of the EU. This analysis thus highlights the continuous process of
adjustment that drives what is essentially a gender regime in transition, its impact on
member states, and the opportunities for promoting equality policies in a transnational
setting. Moreover, considering the dearth of literature on gender and foreign policy, let
alone the impact of gender norms on the European external dimension, this article will
contextualize the analysis by focusing on the distinct body of literature on gender
regimes. Our article will thus explore the nature of the EU’s gender regime/s and how it
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