The new wars and women: A case of the Syrian war

The first view that gender-based violence is used as a weapon in wars was put forward by Susan Brownmiller. Following the statements in the Bosnian War and Rwanda War court reports, the concept that women were used/ instrumentalized in wars brought a new dimension to war studies. With the transformation in war following the Cold War, the concept of New Wars emerged, and studies suggesting that women were used as a weapon of war increased. The concept of New Wars was first used by Mary Kaldor and its distinctive features were categorized as actors, goals and method. Distinguishing methods of state and non-state actors that impact the emergence of the concept of New Wars include the instrumentalization of women and the use of gender-based forms of violence to achieve their goals. The current study evaluates the ongoing Syrian War within the scope of the New Wars in line with its characteristics. In the study, it was analyzed for which goals women are used by actors as a means of war. In this direction, data were collected from eighteen participants using the semi-structured interview form of the qualitative research method. The data were analyzed with the descriptive analysis technique. The findings obtained from the data, supported by the data obtained from the literature and reports made by international organizations, were categorized under two main headings: i) War Instrumentation of Women; and ii) Effects of War on Women. In the Syrian War, it is seen that gender-based violence is used as a tool of war in different dimensions among the methods of non-state actors. The present study is anticipated to contribute to the literature on instrumentalization of women in New Wars.