The Military-Peace Complex: Gender and Materiality in Afghanistan

221 Pages·2021·2 MB·English

by  Hannah Partis-Jennings

OFFSET CENTRE 3mm - allow for hinge in book
page size 234 x 156mm but follows EUP PPC jacket
Hires CMYK pdf from Indesign CS6
17 mm
3 mm
A
Advances in Critical Military Studies d
t v
SerieS editorS: Victoria M. BaSHaM and SaraH BulMer h a
e n
c
‘ Hannah Partis-Jennings provides a genuinely fresh analysis m e
the s
of civil-military relations, and how military and civilian actors ilit in
separately and jointly seek to address conflict. Her approach a
C
r
is innovative, draws on extensive fieldwork, and brings to the y r
i
– t
i
fore issues of embodiment, space, and the everyday. This p military– c
a
e
book marks a new frontier for Peace and Conflict Studies and l
a M
c
is highly recommended.’
e il
i
t
roger Mac Ginty, durham university c a
o peace r
m y
Exploring the physical, embodied landscape of the
S
p
t
military–peace complex in Afghanistan l u
e
d
x
i
This book focuses on the military and statebuilding components of the international e
complex s
project in Afghanistan since 2001. It posits and discusses the military–peace
complex as a framework for understanding the international project in Afghanistan,
pointing to the sliding together and collapse between military and peace actors,
and mandates and ideational frameworks. Arguing that military and peace work in
234 mm
the liberal mode cannot be logically separated, but rather are co-constituted and
operate in a dynamic relationship to each other with fluid and shifting boundaries, H
the book focuses on the role of gender within the logics of the international project a gender and
n
in Afghanistan. Both material and spatial entanglements and cross-cutting logics n
a
are also explored.
h

Based on original interviews and wider research, the book offers a holistic way of Pa materiality in
viewing the international project in Afghanistan, drawing attention to its under- r
t
noticed elements and providing a new way of understanding its politics. is
-
J
e
Hannah Partis-Jennings is a Lecturer in International Relations and Security in the n afghanistan
n
School of Social Sciences and Humanities at Loughborough University.
i
n
g
s
ISBN 978-1-4744-5332-5
edinburghuniversitypress.com
Cover design: www.richardbudddesign.co.uk Hannah Partis-Jennings
3 mm
17 mm
17 mm 3 mm 156 mm 156 mm 3 mm 17 mm
2 mm spine 16 mm 2 mm
The Military–Peace Complex
Series Editors: Victoria M. Basham and Sarah Bulmer
The Advances in Critical Military Studies series welcomes original thinking on the
ways in which military power works within different societies and geopolitical
arenas
Militaries are central to the production and dissemination of force globally
but the enduring legacies of military intervention are increasingly apparent
at the societal and personal bodily levels as well, demonstrating that violence
and war- making function on multiple scales. At the same time, the notion that
violence is as an appropriate response to wider social and political problems
transcends militaries: from private security, to seemingly ‘non- military’ settings
such as fitness training and schooling, the legitimisation and normalisation of
authoritarianism and military power occurs in various sites. This series seeks
original, high- quality manuscripts and edited volumes that engage with such
questions of how militaries, militarism and militarisation assemble and disas-
semble worlds touched and shaped by violence in these multiple ways. It will
showcase innovative and interdisciplinary work that engages critically with the
operation and effects of military power and provokes original questions for
researchers and students alike.
Titles in the Advances in Critical Military Studies series include:
Published:
Resisting Militarism: Direct Action and the Politics of Subversion
Chris Rossdale
Making War on Bodies: Militarisation, Aesthetics and Embodiment in International
Politics
Catherine Baker
Disordered Violence: How Gender, Race and Heteronormativity Structure Terrorism
Caron Gentry
Sex and the Nazi Soldier: Violent, Commercial and Consensual Contacts during the
War in the Soviet Union, 1941–1945
Regina Mühlhäuser (translated by Jessica Spengler)
The Military–Peace Complex: Gender and Materiality in Afghanistan
Hannah Partis- Jennings
Forthcoming:
Inhabiting No-Man’s-Land: Army Wives, Gender and Militarisation
Alexandra Hyde
The Military–Peace Complex
Gender and Materiality in Afghanistan
HANNAH PARTIS-J ENNINGS
Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish
academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social
sciences, combining cutting- edge scholarship with high editorial and production values
to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website:
edinburghuniversitypress.com
© Hannah Partis- Jennings, 2021
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
The Tun – Holyrood Road, 12(2f) Jackson’s Entry, Edinburgh EH8 8PJ
Typeset in 10.5/13 ITC Giovanni Std by
Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire,
and printed and bound in Great Britain.
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 4744 5332 5 (hardback)
ISBN 978 1 4744 5334 9 (webready PDF)
ISBN 978 1 4744 5335 6 (epub)
The right of Hannah Partis- Jennings to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and the Copyright
and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).
CONTENTS
List of Figures vi
Acknowledgements vii
List of Abbreviations ix
Introduction 1
1. Afghanistan in Context 28
2. Performing the Military–Peace Complex: Logics that
Entangle 62
3. The Martial Politics of Things and Spaces 99
4. Liberal Feminism, the Third World Woman and the
Third Gender 138
A Final Conclusion 176
Bibliography 182
Index 208
FIGURES
I.1 Where a Bamiyan Buddha used to be 3
I.2 The paddle boats 4
2.1 A coffee shop entrance in Kabul 72
3.1 Swimming Pool Hill, Kabul 108
3.2 Rugs in a shop in Kabul 108
3.3 International organisation compound 122
3.4 Vehicle in Kabul 130
3.5 UN- marked helicopter 131
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I dedicate this book to Marie, to whom I owe the greatest thanks. Without
you, Marie, the research would not have been done, and you know how
grateful I am to you for being an inspiration and a source of support and
friendship. I also wish to thank Shamsia, Zaheed, Mustafa, Alex and the
many others who showed me enormous kindness and made it possible
for me to see so many wonderful and important spaces and talk to such
brilliant people in Afghanistan. Shamsia, you are someone I came to
admire deeply in a short space of time; your wit, intelligence and energy
left a lasting impression. I must also thank Nargis Nehan, Hosai and
EQUALITY for Peace and Democracy for allowing me to work with them
briefly, use their offices at times and enjoy delicious staff lunches. Thank
you also to the many people who spoke with me, from taxi drivers and
friends to official respondents, offering such valuable insights as well as
their time.
The research for this book started as part of my doctoral study at
the University of St Andrews and for that I owe great thanks to Patrick
Hayden, for supporting my scholarship application, Jaremey McMullin,
who was my second supervisor, and most of all to Caron Gentry, my
supervisor, mentor and friend. Thank you, Caron, for the intellectual
support, the inspirational conversations and for rooting for me, always.
Because of you, I have a PhD. At St Andrews, I learned so much, sur-
rounded by such fantastic people – Nick Rennger, Karin Fierke, Jasmine
Gani, Gurchathen Sanghera, Faye Donnelly, Jeffery Murer and others
who shaped the intellectual environment so beautifully, as well as my
friends: Andreas, Chris, Clara, Natasha, Helga, Jenna, Hannah, Elena,
Luise, Alexis, Sophie, Aliya, Selbi, Fran, Antonio, Kieran, Lizzie, Mez,
Becks, Arik, Rab, Fiona, Sonya, Jack, Naomi, Elle, François, Katarina,
viii / The Military–Peace Complex
Daria, Johana, Kate, Robbie, Dan, Caroline and many more who made
my life there so memorable and joyful. Andreas, together we made it
through, with a friendship that will last a lifetime. Chris, thank you for
so many meaningful conversations – y ou are a natural scholar. Clara,
you have always inspired me and made me laugh – I am so grateful to
have found you and your particular warmth and genius. Natasha, your
grace and moral strength taught me a lot. Jenna, thank you for making
me feel valuable and for all the hilarious moments. Helga, you are one
of the most giving people I have ever m et – t hank you for all that you
are. Becks, you made me a part of your St Andrews family – thank you
for bringing people together. Mez, living with you was a joy. H annah –
for the nuance.
Thank you to the Russell Trust at the University of St Andrews, who
awarded me over £700 to fund my trip to Afghanistan.
Thank you also to my friends in Dublin for their encouragement, to
those I met on my MA in Peace Studies which first sparked my interest
in questions of global politics, intervention and peace, and to those
who taught us so well on that p rogramme – Iain Atack, Gillian Wylie,
Etain Tannam, Jude Lal and others. Thank you to those I met along
the way through academia, and who make it better on the hard days,
especially to Katharine, Henry and James. Of course, the book would
not have been finished without the support of my current institution,
Loughborough University, and for that, as well as everything else, thank
you especially to Caroline Kennedy- Pipe.
I also want to thank Marsha Henry, Paul Higate and Gurchathen
Sanghera for their work on the research that became Insecure Spaces. It
showed me a different way of thinking.
A huge and vital thank you to Victoria Basham and Sarah Bulmer for
editing the series of which this book is a part, for being such wonderful
feminists and such fantastic scholars in so many ways. And to the editors
at Edinburgh University Press, Sarah Foyle and Jen Daly, who helped,
facilitated and communicated with me through this project.
Finally, to the three people I love most dearly: my partner Ciaran,
and my parents Kevin and Anne. Ciaran, thank you for being such
a generous, humorous, eccentric, intelligent, linguistically astute and
loving human and for helping me through this process. I am so lucky.
Mum and Dad, I owe you everything. You are both gifted, sparkling,
erudite, gentle people who make the world a better place. Thank you
for the endless support. The gratitude and love I feel are beyond words.
ABBREVIATIONS
COIN Counterinsurgency
FET Female Engagement Team
FOB Forward Operating Base
IO International Organisation
ISAF International Security Assistance Force
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
NGO Non- Governmental Organisation
PMSC Private Military Security Company
PRT Provincial Reconstruction Teams
UN United Nations
UNAMA United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
USAID United States Agency for International Development