Gender as an analytic lens for agonistic peace: insights from Colombia’s Truth Commission

Abstract

Recent literature has identified a new avenue for approaching peace in the post-peace agreement sphere: agonistic peace. While much of the nascent scholarship on agonistic peace includes mentions of gender, the link between agonistic peace and gender has yet to be clarified. This paper fills this gap in the literature in three critical ways. First, it demonstrates the shared importance in both certain strands of feminist theory and agonistic theory of anti-essentialism, intersectionality, and plurality. Second, it argues that agonistic peace’s emphasis on transforming existing hegemonies through non-violent contestation must include a focus on addressing patriarchal patterns of oppression. Finally, through the empirical example of Colombia’s Truth Commission, it demonstrates the ways in which a post-agreement examination of gender can serve as a tool for identifying agonistic peace practices in empirical cases.