Security Sector Reform, Militarisation and Gender Relations in Uganda: A Critical-Feminist Perspective

by Maike Messerschmidt

Overview

This book applies a critical-feminist perspective to the question of how security sector reform (SSR) interacts with militarisation and gender relations. Based on an in-depth empirical analysis of SSR in Uganda, the book argues that in a militarising context, SSR is likely to reinforce militarisation and the corresponding essentialised gender relations. Centring qualitative interview material, the book shows that in Uganda, SSR benefits political and social elites, while women, minorities and the political opposition, rather than benefiting from improvements in the justice and security sectors, remain marginalised and oppressed. External actors must accept partial yet significant responsibility for these developments as they supported, financed and legitimised many of the reforms. Based on these insights, the book pushes for and positions itself as part of a new generation of SSR practice and research.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781399545235
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	12/31/2025
Series:	Edinburgh Feminist Studies on Peace, Violence and Justice
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Maike Messerschmidt is Lecturer and Research Associate at the Institute of Cultural Studies, University of the Bundeswehr Munich

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations

Introduction: The Failure of Security Sector Reform in Uganda and Elsewhere

1. Disentangling Complex Realities: Critical-Feminist and Practice-Theoretical Tools for Analysing SSR and Militarisation

2. Militarised Masculinity, Protected Femininity, and a Muscular State: The Glorification of Military and Soldiers

3. Masculine Experts of Violence, Feminine Victims, and the Legitimate Use of Military Force: The Glorification of Military Violence

4. Controlling Women, Controlling Nations: Militaristic Nationalism

5. Policing Sexuality, Gendered Enemies, and an Island of Peace: The Omnipresence of Enemies

Conclusion: SSR and its Discontents

List of Interviews
Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

Maike Messerschmidt’s book is a thoughtful, thought-provoking, and at times provocative, critical-feminist analysis of the pitfalls of security sector reform (SSR) in militarised, heteronormative, patriarchal contexts. It is an important, and immensely timely, call to take the gendered socio-political dimensions of SSR and militarism much more seriously into account.

Henri Myrttinen