What question did this study set out to answer?

The paper investigates how armed masculinity shapes political culture and governance in post-conflict societies, particularly South Sudan.

May 21, 2026Open Access

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

Key Points

The paper investigates how armed masculinity shapes political culture and governance in post-conflict societies, particularly South Sudan.
Utilized life history interviews with former combatants, including child soldiers in South Sudan.
Conducted ethnographic observations of community political life in Jonglei and Eastern Equatoria.
Performed critical discourse analysis of political rhetoric and state ceremonies.
Identified the fusion of formal norms, institutional design, and struggles for authority as elements of militarised masculinity in governance.
Demonstrated that armed conflict actively constructs and reproduces masculine identities that influence post-conflict political culture.
Provided comparative insights with Liberia, showing broader implications in African and global contexts.

Abstract

After the Gun: Masculinity, Militarism, and the Gendered Political Culture of Post-Conflict Societies ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ DOI _ 10. 5281/zenodo. 20265288___________________ Abraham Kuol Nyuon, Ph. D. nyuonabraham7@gmail. com ; nyuonabraham@gc. uoj. edu. ss Received: January 11, 2024 | Revised: May 21, 2024 | Accepted: August 7, 2024 | Published: October 13, 2024 Real author block incorporated using Nyuon institutional details; correspondence and ORCID can be added at submission stage if required. Abstract After the Gun: Masculinity, Militarism, and the Gendered Political Culture of Post-Conflict Societies examines the reproduction of armed masculine authority inside post-conflict governance, everyday community power, and reintegration practice. The article places South Sudan at the centre of the analysis, but it resists treating the case as uniquely exceptional or analytically sealed off from wider African and global debates. Instead, it brings Feminist security studies (Enloe; Tickner; Connell on hegemonic masculinity) ; critical military studies (Higate; Woodward) ; post-conflict gender relations (Pankhurst; El-Bushra). Examines how armed conflict constructs, transforms, and reproduces masculine identity in ways that shape post-conflict political culture and governance. into one conversation and develops the concept of militarised masculinity to explain how formal norms, institutional design, and practical struggles over authority become fused. Using Life history interviews with former combatants (including former child soldiers) in South Sudan and diaspora communities; ethnographic observation of community political life in Jonglei and Eastern Equatoria; critical discourse analysis of political leadership rhetoric and state ceremonial; comparison with Liberia and Sierra

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