Left behind on the streets of Khartoum: international financial institutions, gendered circuits of violence, and the subversion of peace

Recent contributions to peace and conflict studies by Feminist Political Economy have examined how the globalized financial system, enforced through International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and other third-party actors, creates gendered circuits of violence in post-conflict settings. Rather than promoting gender equality and women’s participation, IFIs implement economic and development reforms that in practice replicate gendered insecurity and the structural inequalities that were responsible for the conflict in the first place. This paper argues that these gendered circuits of violence are active across the spectrum of conflict settings, and particularly in formal peacemaking interventions. The advancement of gendered circuits of violence through internationally led economic and development policies in conflict-affected societies does not just replicate gendered insecurity and inequality; it also undercuts the normative goals of peace interventions. This is demonstrated through a critical case study of violence entrenchment in Sudan, where gendered circuits of violence are shown to have been exacerbated by decades of international interventions underpinned by globalized financial practices of formalization, capitalization, and financialization. This paper further develops the theory of gendered circuits of violence by interrogating their ability to prolong and foment political violence and armed conflict through both physical and structural violence.