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121. Begging the Question: What Would a Men, Peace and Security Agenda Look Like?

Author:
Callum Watson
Publication Date:
06-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Connections
Institution:
Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:
The starting point for much of the scholarship examining gender in International Relations and security studies can be neatly summarized in a question that Cynthia Enloe asked in 1989, namely “Where are the women?” [1] The following decade was marked by several milestones in the inclusion of women in the international security agenda such as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action produced at the Fourth World Conference for Women in 1995 and the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security in 2000. After fifteen years and six further resolutions, academics, practitioners, and policymakers alike have begun to ask a similar question, but this time of the gender equality and women’s empowerment agenda, namely “Where are the men?” In this article, I first examine the historical background of work conducted on men and masculinities in peace and security at the international level. Subsequently, I outline some of the reasons why a “Men, Peace and Security” agenda is yet to clearly develop in international policy circles. Finally, I offer some suggestions on what a Men, Peace and Security agenda would look like by mirroring the four pillars of the Women, Peace and Security framework, namely protection, prevention, participation, and relief and recovery.
Topic:
Security, Gender Issues, Reform, Women, and Peace
Political Geography:
Global Focus

122. Gender and Elections: Temporary Special Measures Beyond Quotas

Author:
Renata Segura
Publication Date:
02-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Social Science Research Council
Abstract:
Gender parity in elected office has become a central goal of national gov- ernments and international organizations around the globe. The roots of this demand extend back to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, which enshrined “the equal rights of men and women,” including the right to participate in government.1 Delegates to the United Nations World Conference on Women, held in Mexico City in 1975, called on governments to “establish goals, strategies, and timetables” to increase “the number of women in elective and appointive public offices and public functions at all levels.”2 The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the UN Gen- eral Assembly and ratified by nearly every member state, reiterated that women must be ensured the right “to hold public office and perform all public functions at all levels of government.”
Topic:
Gender Issues, Political Activism, and Elections
Political Geography:
Global Focus

123. Ethnic Diversity, Gender, and National Leaders

Author:
Katherine W. Phillips, Nicholas A. Pearce, and Susan E. Perkins
Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Abstract:
National leaders have the ultimate responsibility to balance the needs of a diverse set of constituents in society while using their country’s unique set of resources to grow the economy and to gain comparative advantages. Salient to many observers, the United States of America, the world’s largest economy, has never had a female president or vice president and has had only forty-four women serve in the 224-year history of the U.S. Senate. Moreover, if women do make it into top-ranked government leadership positions, whether or not they perform notably different from their male counterparts still remains unknown. Though studies presented by several psychologists validate that women’s leadership styles differ from their male counterparts (i.e., more democratic, inclusive, participative and transformative), how this plays out nationally and in terms of setting national policy agendas and making key decisions for society is explained only anecdotally.[2] For example, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, affectionately known to her countrymen as the “Iron Lady,” was said to bring a “motherly sensitivity” to her post-war torn country, Liberia; Michelle Bachelet, the Republic of Chile’s first female national leader, won in 2006 on a campaign championing “gender equality” and “inclusion;” and most recently, Park Geun-hye won the presidential election in the Republic of Korea under the political platform of “disarming vicious cycles of distrust and building peace” with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.[3] These anecdotes all suggest an association with a gender-specific perception of governance, as well as a gender-specific expectation for substantive policy changes with a female taking the lead at the national level. To develop a better understanding of the unique contributions of female national leaders, this article uses global cross-national comparative leader data from 188 countries to explore the following questions: 1) How have global trends of national female leadership changed over time? and 2) Is there evidence that having a female—as compared to a male—leader has differential consequences for economic growth as ethnic diversity increases?
Topic:
Gender Issues, Economic growth, Feminism, and Diversity
Political Geography:
Global Focus

124. Gendering Global Conflict: Toward a Feminist Theory of War

Author:
Laura Sjoberg
Publication Date:
08-2013
Content Type:
Book
Institution:
Columbia University Press
Abstract:
Laura Sjoberg positions gender and gender subordination as key factors in the making and fighting of global conflict. Through the lens of gender, she examines the meaning, causes, practices, and experiences of war, building a more inclusive approach to the analysis of violent conflict between states. Considering war at the international, state, substate, and individual levels, Sjoberg's feminist perspective elevates a number of causal variables in war decision-making. These include structural gender inequality, cycles of gendered violence, state masculine posturing, the often overlooked role of emotion in political interactions, gendered understandings of power, and states' mistaken perception of their own autonomy and unitary nature. Gendering Global Conflict also calls attention to understudied spaces that can be sites of war, such as the workplace, the household, and even the bedroom. Her findings show gender to be a linchpin of even the most tedious and seemingly bland tactical and logistical decisions in violent conflict. Armed with that information, Sjoberg undertakes the task of redefining and reintroducing critical readings of war's political, economic, and humanitarian dimensions, developing the beginnings of a feminist theory of war.
Topic:
International Relations, Gender Issues, War, International Security, and Political Theory
Political Geography:
Global Focus
Publication Identifier:
9780231520003
Publication Identifier Type:
ISBN

125. Savaş Hukukunda Tecavüz ve Yağmayı Yasakla(ma)yan Rejimler Lahey Sözleşmeleri (1899, 1907)

Author:
Tuba İnal
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
Th is article seeks to explain two related theoretical questions by looking at the treatment of two related practices of war, pillage and rape, by international law: How does change, particularly legalized regime change, happen in international relations and what is the role of “gender” as a category in this process of change? The argument here is that three conditions are necessary for the emergence of a legalized prohibition regime: Firstly, states must believe that they can comply with the prohibition because non-compliance is costly. Secondly, a normative context conducive to the idea that the particular practice is abnormal/undesirable is necessary. Thirdly, actors actively propagating these ideas to promote the creation of a particular regime should exist. The 100-year temporal difference between the emergence of the regimes against pillage and rape reveals the role of gender in this process.
Topic:
Gender Issues, International Law, and War Crimes
Political Geography:
Global Focus

126. Review: Gender and International Security-Feminist Perspectives, Laura Sjoberg (Ed.)

Author:
Çiğdem Aydin Koyuncu
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
Laura Sjoberg editörlüğünde hazırlanan dört ana bölüm altında on üç makaleden oluşan bu derleme kitap, toplumsal cinsiyet (gender) perspektifiyle uluslararası güvenlik kuramlarının analizini/eleştirisini ve uluslararası güvenlikle toplumsal cinsiyet arasındaki ilişkinin değerlendirilmesini amaçlamaktadır. Çalışmada, özellikle toplumsal cinsiyet konusunun uluslararası güvenlik alanında önemli bir yere sahip olmakla birlikte gerek kuramda gerekse uygulamada ihmal edildiği tartışılmaktadır. 2000 yılında BM Güvenlik Konseyi\'nin toplumsal cinsiyetin barışın korunması, mültecilerin idaresi, çatışma sonrası silahsızlanma, savaş sırasında savaş dışı olanların korunması gibi konulara bütünleşmesini içeren 1325 sayılı kararı kabul etmesi, küresel güvenliğin tüm alanlarında aktörleri toplumsal cinsiyet konularına yönelik daha duyarlı olmaya yöneltmiştir. Bu kitap giriş kısmında da belirtildiği gibi, geleneksel güvenlik çalışmaları ile feminist güvenlik çalışmaları arasındaki iletişimi nicelik ve nitelik açısından arttırmayı, toplumsal cinsiyet analizlerinin uluslararası güvenlik çalışmalarındaki önemini ortaya koymayı ve feminist yaklaşımların güvenlik çalışmalarındaki yerini genişletmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Kitap sadece toplumsal cinsiyete yönelik varsayılan ilgisizliği sorgulamak ve toplumsal cinsiyetin güvenlik çalışmalarının bir alt başlığı olduğunu iddia etmek amacında değildir. Çalışmaya katkıda bulunanlar, toplumsal cinsiyetin kavramsal, ampirik ve normatif olarak uluslararası güvenlik çalışmalarında gerekli olduğunu ortaya koymaya çalışmaktadır. Ayrıca uluslararası güvenlik kuramları ve güvenliğin temel konuları eleştirel bir bakış açısıyla ele alınmakta, güvenlik alanında kadınların birer aktör olarak giderek artan rolleri analiz edilmekte ve günümüz güvenlik sorunları toplumsal cinsiyetçi bir bakış açısıyla değerlendirilmektedir.
Topic:
Gender Issues and International Security
Political Geography:
Global Focus

127. Friend not Foe: Opening Spaces for Civil Society Engagement to Prevent Violent Extremism

Author:
David Cortright, Alistair Millar, Linda Gerber-Stellingwerf, George A. Lopez, Eliot Fackler, and Joshua Weaver
Publication Date:
04-2011
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Fourth Freedom Forum
Abstract:
One of the less known aspects of the tragic 9/11 events and the subsequent global war on terror is the chilling impact counterterrorism measures have had on civil society and citizens’ agency. Ten years later the phrase ‘war on terror’ is no longer used officially, but measures that curtail the operational and political freedoms of civic organizations worldwide in the name of countering terrorism continue to be real, tangible, and strongly counterproductive.The report by David Cortright et al, Friend not Foe: Opening Spaces for Civil Society Engagement to Prevent Violent Extremism, gives a comprehensive and vivid account of the challenges that civil society groups continue to face worldwide in protecting and expanding their political voice and operational space. The first edition of this report focused primarily on the e8ects of counterterrorism measures on civil society in the Global South. This updated version places the closing of civil society space in a wider global context of securitization of aid, de-funding of civil society, and civil military cooperation. It gives a crystal clear account of the persistent shift in international cooperation policy from sustainable development as an intrinsic public good to development as an instrument for national and geopolitical security and economic goals.
Topic:
Civil Society, Gender Issues, Terrorism, Violent Extremism, Sustainable Development Goals, and Peace
Political Geography:
Global Focus

128. Exploring Universal Rights: A Symposium

Author:
Jamie Mayerfeld, Henry Shue, Jack Donnelly, Kok-Chor Tan, Charles Beitz, and Brooke A. Ackerly
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Human Rights and Human Welfare - Review Essays
Institution:
Josef Korbel Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver
Abstract:
The struggle for human rights has been shadowed by philosophical doubt. Can we assert universal human rights without engaging in moral imperialism? Can we have confidence in the moral beliefs that underlie human rights claims? Can we justify human rights to those who do not believe in the intrinsic value of autonomy? Which Rights Should Be Universal?, the first of two projected volumes on human rights, is a significant contribution to this literature. In a series of original and mind-opening arguments, William Talbott, a professor of philosophy at the University of Washington, lifts us over one philosophical impasse after another. Admirers of Which Rights Should Be Universal? will find their thinking about human rights enlarged and enhanced by a wealth of new concepts; critics will be kept busy in answering the book's copious arguments. From any perspective, Professor Talbott's book moves the conversation about human rights onto a new plane.
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, Gender Issues, Human Rights, Political Economy, and Post Colonialism
Political Geography:
Global Focus