Changing nationhood and masculinity: Dutch veterans of peace operations

Based on interviews to Dutch veterans deployed to Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq, this paper aims at exploring the relationship between their nationhood, militarism and masculinity. Through the analysis of their narratives about the people encountered abroad, either the local population or peacekeepers of other nationalities, this paper also examines how the definition of the Other is created in these narratives; and if, and how this definition is related to the veterans’ sense of nationhood and masculinity. Moreover, it examines to what extent this definition relates to discourses of Balkanism and Orientalism, and to training received prior to deployment. This paper argues that the concepts of nationhood, militarism and masculinity of Dutch veterans exist in relation to each other, both when Dutch veterans position themselves within their own society, and when they relate to the people they meet during deployment. Secondly, it points to the existence of multiple Others in veterans’ narratives, and to masculinity, military and nationhood playing significant roles in the processes of Othering. These findings, although limited to a small number of veterans, point out the ‘strategic location’ of the veterans vis-à-vis the population they encounter. All their accounts not only relate to ‘Dutch values’, but also place these in a superior position, compared to the local ones. This reflects both Balkanist and Orientalist discourses in which Europe and the West are always depicted as more civilized than the Other, and in a superior position. The results of this research make a small contribution to the feminist debates about the nexus of gender, nationhood and soldiering, and to Dutch debates about manhood, nationhood and peace-keeping. Moreover, they contribute to understanding the relevance and importance of the specific social locations of the veterans within the societies they are part of, and those in which they find themselves in the country of deployment.