This book expands the inquiry of United Nations peace operations to incorporate their effects on the equality of the host state. To achieve this, a mainstream-based analytical framework, additionally informed by suggestions from feminist research, is formulated and applied to the case of Timor-Leste. The study makes two contributions. Firstly, it enhances our ability to trace changes in the power balance between men and women by developing the concept of gender power-relations, especially introducing security equality (understood as the distribution of protection between men and women). Secondly, when the concept of gender power-relations had been developed to enable a more fine-grained analysis, the project proceeds to systematically explore effects of peace operations on these power-relations in the host state. The results shows the importance of considering the differences in situation of men and women in order both to avoid doing harm and to obtain a more equal peace.

Louise Olsson, Ph.D. (2007) in Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University is Assistant Professor at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research and project leader at the Folke Bernadotte Academy in Sweden. She has co-edited Women and International Peacekeeping (2001) and a special issue of Security Dialogue on Gender and Security (2005) as well as published in International Peacekeeping.