Gendered silences in Western responses to the Russia-Ukraine war

Over last two decades the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda has formed an integral part of NATO's and many Western states' public diplomacy strategies, most prominently in relation to the war in Afghanistan. Yet in response to Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 the West has largely remained silent on WPS, this appears surprising given that WPS has been a cornerstone of the West's relationship with Ukraine since 2014. In this intervention, I reflect on my own and others' work on NATO, WPS and public diplomacy and consider what this can tell us about such gendered silences in Western responses to the war. In conclusion, I call for more feminist questions to be asked of public diplomacy.