After the Gun: Masculinity, Militarism, and the Gendered Political Culture of Post-Conflict Societies

After the Gun: Masculinity, Militarism, and the Gendered Political Culture of Post-Conflict Societies examines the persistence of militarized masculine authority in post-conflict governance, community power relations, and reintegration processes. Centering South Sudan without treating it as exceptional, the study situates the case within broader debates in feminist security studies, critical military studies, and post-conflict gender relations. It develops the concept of militarized masculinity to explain how gendered identities, institutional practices, and struggles over authority shape post-conflict political culture. Drawing on life history interviews with former combatants, including former child soldiers, in South Sudan and diaspora communities; ethnographic observation of community life in Jonglei and Eastern Equatoria; critical discourse analysis of political rhetoric and state ceremonial; and comparative insights from Liberia and Sierra Leone, the study advances three linked propositions. First, combat socialization produces durable forms of masculine identity that extend beyond wartime. Second, these identities sustain militarized forms of authority within both community and state institutions. Third, reintegration processes remain limited when framed narrowly through binaries of heroism and victimhood. The analysis addresses the central question of how experiences of combat—especially among those socialized into violence at a young age—shape political behaviour, community authority, and gender relations in civilian life. It shows that gender norms, institutional practices, and political narratives function as interconnected sites of power rather than separate domains. The study concludes that post-conflict reform efforts fail when they overlook the gendered f