ABSTRACT
Despite some troublesome continuity breaks in operationalising gender between strategy, joint-level doctrine and operational and tactical level doctrines in different military organisations, a survey of military activities and missions that work to operationalise gender throughout the international security environment shows a broad array of efforts in the areas of organisational development, education, training, planning and operations. If not best practices, these efforts are at least solid beginnings for the establishment of a more thorough and comprehensive operationalisation of gender in the different military organisations of the world. At the moment, however, these efforts are not all occurring in one place at the same time, suggesting that the resources that are being harnessed to deliver these efforts are not likely being used as efficiently as they could be. Further, since many are geared towards national concerns, they are not necessarily ‘plug and play’ in other national settings. Another challenge to increased implementation of UNSCR 1325 throughout militaries is likely the lack of empirical evidence demonstrating the positive effects of including gender considerations across the span of activities and operations. Finally, these efforts do not yet meaningfully address relationships between armed conflict, women and climate change together, and not doing so ignores what could be a significant threat in the evolving international security environment, particularly in civilian-centric operations.
