Gendering the Security Discourse: A Feminist Methodological Critique of EU Hybrid Warfare Policy

This working paper subjects the European Union's hybrid warfare discourse — primarily the Strategic Compass for Security and Defence (2022) — to a feminist methodological critique using Saeidzadeh's (2023) epistemological framework. It argues that the EU's hybrid warfare policy is constructed through three interlocking masculine logics: the logic of strength, the logic of technical rationality, and the logic of the bounded self against the threatening Other. The paper further demonstrates that 'resilience' — the Strategic Compass's most pervasive concept — is not gender-neutral but exploits gendered structures of social reproduction while rendering them invisible. The 2024 Strategic Compass Progress Report contains zero references to gender, gender equality, or intersectionality, confirming that the EU's feminist rhetorical layer is being stripped away as militarization deepens. The paper fills a documented gap: no prior study has applied Saeidzadeh's (2023) framework to hybrid warfare discourse specifically. Published as a Working Paper, Manipal Institute of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, June 2026.