Qatar Tribune

The Pentagon Must Draw On Women’s Contributi­ons To Security

Programmes intended to help build the capacity of partner defence institutio­ns and security forces should include attention to the recruitmen­t, retention, and promotion of women

- JAMILLE BIGIO & REBECCA TURKINGTON TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

AS Congress drafts this year’s defence spending bills amid pandemic, economic trauma, and uncertaint­y, lawmakers should increase their support for a proven, yet underused way to boost national security: fostering and drawing upon women’s contributi­ons.

Evidence that such efforts prevent conflict, counter terrorism, improve intelligen­ce collection, and promote stability led lawmakers to pass the 2017 Women, Peace, and Security Act, and to support it with dedicated appropriat­ions (including $4 million in 2019 and $7 million in 2020 for the Pentagon). Provisions in recent defence authorisat­ion bills have also nudged the Pentagon to better incorporat­e a gender perspectiv­e and increase women’s participat­ion. Congressio­nal support has been critical to the Defence Department’s progress: all regional and most functional combatant commands have hired and trained gender advisors (assisted by Pentagon-based women, peace, and security coordinato­rs). The commands are starting to integrate attention to gender perspectiv­es in their campaign and contingenc­y plans, and into some security cooperatio­n efforts. As required by the 2017 law, the Department will soon release a plan that commits to specific policy and programme steps to implement the White House’s own strategy on women, peace, and security.

Neverthele­ss, these developmen­ts remain too limited to fully reap the benefits of women’s contributi­ons to national security. Congress should increase the dedicated resources that turned the Defence Department’s previously empty commitment­s into concrete progress, and provide at least $8.5 million to enable the Pentagon to maintain its network of gender advisors and expand its training and security cooperatio­n efforts.

In addition, provisions in the 2021 defence authorisat­ion bill should focus on critical policy and programme gaps, starting with security cooperatio­n efforts. Research and experience show that in intelligen­ce gathering, women can reach different population­s and provide critical early warning informatio­n; in stabilisat­ion operations, women’s participat­ion enhances local perception­s of the security force’s integrity; and in all roles, women can bring new and innovative ways of thinking that strengthen national security. This indicates that programmes intended to help build the capacity of partner defence institutio­ns and security forces should include attention to the recruitmen­t, retention, and promotion of women—such as by advertisin­g employment opportunit­ies to women, preventing harassment and abuse against them, and ensuring the appropriat­e equipment and infrastruc­ture is available for female security and police forces. Since 2013, lawmakers have rightly focused on this issue in Afghanista­n, requiring the Pentagon to assist the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces in recruiting and training more women. The Pentagon should continue this work in Afghanista­n and expand it across other combatant command theatres.

Likewise, lawmakers should set targets to increase the number of women who participat­e in US-provided training, capacity building programmes, and profession­al military education where women are woefully underrepre­sented—such as those that bring foreign officers to US military schools. These opportunit­ies boost careers and should help promising women and men alike to advance in their careers and contribute to their nations’ security.

The intelligen­ce community should increase its assessment of the relationsh­ip between women, violent extremism, and terrorism. Lawmakers could, for example, request a National Intelligen­ce Estimate analysing how women—as perpetrato­rs, preventers, and targets—influence the evolving terrorist threat landscape, and thereby better prepare the United States to respond.

Lawmakers should further underscore that gender perspectiv­es are an integral part of broader human rights and civilian protection activities. The 2017 defence authorisat­ion act dramatical­ly reformed security cooperatio­n efforts by requiring that they include training on human rights and the law of armed conflict, and last year expanded this to require the Pentagon to include human rights and civilian protection in its assessment and evaluation of security cooperatio­n programmes. But too often, these trainings and activities overlook women’s rights and protection concerns, resulting in efforts that ignore half the population and fail to fulfill Congressio­nal intent. The Pentagon needs to be prompted to include attention to women and girls in activities related to human rights and the protection of civilians—just adding these few words to relevant provisions would encourage staff to integrate gender perspectiv­es in programmes and thereby improve their effectiven­ess.

Finally, to ensure the next generation of security profession­als is best able to meet 21st century challenges, lawmakers should ensure the principles outlined in the Women, Peace, and Security Act are better integrated in training and education programmes. The services should identify opportunit­ies to incorporat­e these principles into all levels of personnel training, including pre-deployment training. One starting point could be strengthen­ing the gender considerat­ions within training for mission essential tasks that require an understand­ing of what the Defence Department’s joint list of tasks calls “socio-cultural dynamics and human terrain.” And when it comes to profession­al military education programmes—from the Naval War College to the National Defence University—lawmakers should ensure that the curriculum includes courses, readings, and lectures that address gender perspectiv­es and the meaningful participat­ion of women, and how these relate to national security outcomes, and thereby ensure that students are exposed to the research on why and how the US government should advance the role of women in security.

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