The Research Network on “Military, War and Gender/Diversity”
(Militär, Krieg und Geschlecht/Diversität, MKGD)
The war in Ukraine, which began in February 2022 with Russia’s attack on Ukrainian territory, the recent conflict in the Middle East triggered by Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel and many other military conflicts in the past and present demonstrate the importance of gender and diversity for our understanding of what is happening. International and national gender research on the military and war emphasizes that the meanings, causes and consequences of military conflicts cannot be understood without taking the analytical category of “gender” into account. The same applies to the functioning and culture of armed forces and their forms of legal and illegal use of military force. The latter also includes sexual and sexualized violence, which has been part of wars to varying degrees and in various forms since antiquity and still is today. But even in times of peace, sexual and sexualized violence has taken place in and by armed forces. Even today, NATO and the German army, the Bundeswehr, like most armed forces, including the troops of UN peacekeeping missions, must take action against inequality and sexual discrimination in their own ranks and try to create more understanding for the topic of gender/diversity.
Research into the topic of military, war and gender/diversity is therefore not only of academic relevance, but also of social and political importance. However, there are still large gaps in research, particularly in German-speaking countries, but also in the international historical, cultural and social sciences. The research network on military, war and gender/diversity, which was officially founded in Potsdam on 11 March 2024 as part of a kick-off workshop, aims to initiate a change here. One-hundred-and-four researchers from universities and non-university research institutions in nineteen countries (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United States), all experts of the subject, have joined the interdisciplinary alliance as cooperation partners to date. The Bundeswehr Centre of Military History and Social Sciences (ZMSBw) is one of them. In addition, over 500 scholars from 34 countries, all working on the subject of gender, violence and war in different stages of their career, joint our MKGD mailing list. The largest groups of network members come from Germany (207), the United States (54), the United Kingdom (46), France (32) and Austria (23).
Aims and Central Questions
The research network is intended to give the important research field of military, war and gender/diversity in Germany, Europe and beyond an academic location and institutional anchoring. The aim is to systematically promote the study of the relationship between gender/diversity, the military and violence as a research approach and subject matter through interdisciplinary, national and international cooperation. The research network should contribute to better networking and regular exchange between experts from various disciplines working in this field, systematically promote young researchers and develop targeted joint research projects that address important research desiderata in this area.
The central question of the research network is what significance the military and war have had and still have as “gender producers” in the past and present, and vice versa, to what extent ideas of gender/diversity have shaped the military and its practices of violence in times of peace and war and still do so today. This question can only be meaningfully addressed in an interdisciplinary manner, which is why historians are working closely with social and cultural scientists in the research network. The period to be considered is the 17th to 21st centuries. The regional framework will be global.
Resources of the Research Network
The resources of the research network are a MKGD mailing list (mkgd@lists.unibw.de) and an MKGD website (https://mkgd.hypotheses.org/), as well as an MKGD online research colloquium, which will regularly comprise four events in each summer and winter semester. The colloquium is linked to the University of the Bundeswehr, Munich. Its language, English or German, will be announced before each event. The MKGD online research colloquium started in the summer term 2024 with the topic “Military, War and Gender/Diversity: State of Research and Research Problems”. More on the organizers and the past and current programs you will find on this (https://mkgd.hypotheses.org/general-text).
Since November 2024, we also have an MKGD Early Career Initiative. In the first inaugural online meeting over 30 international researchers participated and brainstormed ideas for the future direction of the Initiative as a platform for intellectual exchange and collaboration among advanced MA students, PhD candidates, and recent PhD.
There are also plans for shorter thematic MKGD online workshops. The first is planned on the theme “Masculinities, Militaries, Violence and Wars since 1945” for June 25 and 26, 2026. In addition, we organize an annual international MKGD-ZMSBw conference together with cooperation partners. The first MKGD-ZMSBw conference took place on the topic “Gender and Violence in Colonial Wars, Colonial Rule and Anti-colonial Liberation Struggles” on Thursday and Friday, 30 and 31 January 2025 at the ZMSBw in Potsdam. The second international MKGD-ZMSBw conference on the theme “Masculinities, Militaries, and Mass Violence in Transition” took place on January 21-23, 2026 at the ZMSBw in Potsdam. The third international MKGD-ZMSBw conference is planned for January 20 to 22, 2027on the topic of “Sexual Violence in Militaries and Wars: Comparative and Long-term Perspectives.” And the fourth international MKGD-ZMSBw conference is planned for September 2028 on the topic of “Violence, Gender and Law: Women and Men in Armed Forces and Conflicts during and after the Cold War.“
For a flyer on the MKGD research network in English click here
For the Annual Report on the activities of the MKGD Network in 2025 click here
Academic Directors of the MKGD Research Network
- Prof. Dr Isabelle Deflers
Professor of Early Modern History at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences and Vice President for Internationalisation and Diversity, University of the Bundeswehr Munich; member of the board of the Working Group of Military Hstory (Arbeitskreis Militärgeschichte e.V., AKM), Germany - Prof. Dr Karen Hagemann
James G. Kenan Distinguished Professor of History and Adjunct Professor of the Curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States - Prof. Dr Isabel Heinemann
Professor of Contemporary History at the Ludwig Maximilian University Munich and Director of the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History, Munich – Berlin, Germany

