The Interrelationship Between Gender and European Union Foreign Policy: A Feminist Institutionalist Analysis of EULEX Kosovo, EUPOL COPPS and EUMM Georgia

• Published in: Journal of international relations and development Vol. 28; no. 2; pp. 154 - 177
• Main Authors: Mullen, Eileen, Bouris, Dimitris
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Palgrave Macmillan 01.06.2025
• Subjects: Common Security and Defence Policy; Data; Feminism; Foreign policy; Gender equity; Gender inequality; Gender roles; Interconnections; Mainstreaming; Military policy; Perpetuation; Statistics; Kosovo; United States > US; Georgia
• ISSN: 1408-6980; 1581-1980
• DOI: 10.1057/s41268-025-00347-8

The European Union (EU) has progressively integrated the objective of gender equality into its internal and external policies. This article investigates the interrelationship between gender and the EU’s civilian Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) missions, as part of its foreign policy. We focus on three such missions, namely EULEX Kosovo, EUPOL COPPS and EUMM Georgia and examine their interconnections with gender through a feminist institutionalist framework. We draw on both qualitative and quantitative data including the missions’ personnel records, press releases, Facebook posts and descriptive statistics as well as a number of semi-structured interviews with EU and missions’ officials. The article highlights how gendered hierarchies, gendered logics of appropriateness, the perpetuation of gender norms, and feminist bureaucrats shape the interplay between gender and civilian CSDP missions. The findings highlight organisational gender imbalances and demonstrate the institutional and practical challenges the missions face which hamper the effective implementation of gender mainstreaming in both their internal and external activities.