A Man's World : A Feminist Institutionalist Analysis of the European Commission's Security Discourse

Sammanfattning

The European Union’s security framework underwent recent changes, emphasising increased security and defence spending. Especially, the role of the European Commission in the CSDP suggests that the EU is taking its security into its own hands. While the security field has always been dominated by male bodies, recent attempts have been made to evolve toward a gender-sensitive approach to security, integrating the United Nations Women, Peace, and Security agenda. Considering these developments, it is interesting to examine the discourse of the most recent Commission (2024-2029) through Critical Discourse Analysis and to determine the role gender plays in the speeches of the Commissioner of Defence and Space, Andrius Kubilius, and the High Representative of Foreign Affairs (HR/VP), Kaja Kallas. Taking the popular theory of Feminist Institutionalism into account, this thesis seeks to explore which gendered norms are present in their discourses with a particular focus on the concepts of institutional boundaries, the logic of appropriateness, and path dependency. Their discourse suggests a highly masculine view on security shaped through institutional boundaries. Masculine norms are reproduced more frequently by Kubilius and less by Kallas, suggesting that the two follow a logic of appropriate behaviour. Lastly, the concept of gender is almost completely silenced in the discourse, suggesting a path dependent trajectory for the Commission that marginalises gender in the security context.