The European Union as an intersectionally gendered security actor: toward a feminist postcolonial research agenda

The European Union (EU) has long been a blind spot in feminist security studies. As the EU attempts to strengthen its profile as a global security, defense, and geopolitical actor, feminist approaches have begun to address how (intersectional) gender matters in the formation of EU security actorness. This chapter introduces research on gender in the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and external relations, as well as in the field of EU border security and migration management. We conclude by suggesting a research agenda in Feminist EU Security Studies (FEUSS) that integrates 1) gender as a policy issue with understandings of gender as intersectional and constitutive of EU security, 2) external and internal security dimensions, and 3) postcolonial perspectives on Europe's role in the world to unpack the ambiguous relationship between the EU as a global gender actor and a global security actor.