Why images matter to the Women, Peace and Security agenda

Description

The visual politics of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda is profoundly understudied in the WPS literature. Although inextricably linked to words, the image is politically significant, and deserves scholarly attention in its own right.

‘Seeing’ is not a neutral act but is infused with power relations that exist at the intersection between the viewer and the subject/object being represented. Indeed, ‘seeing’ is co-constitutive of power relations including, but not limited to, gender, ‘race’, and coloniality, which affect how we interpret images. The way we ‘see’ — as well as what we do and don’t see — enables particular forms of knowing which condition political action. Thus, while what the camera captures may be ‘real’, its focus and interpretation will always be partial and personal. I therefore contend in a recent article in International Affairs that the visual is a vector of power in the (re)production of the WPS agenda.