Western Europe

Citation:

Kim, Dong Jin. 2019. "Beyond Identity Lines: Women Building Peace in Northern Ireland and the Korean Peninsula." Asia Europe Journal. doi: 10.1007/s10308-019-00551-5.

Author: Dong Jin Kim

Abstract:

This article explores the challenges and contributions of women in building and sustaining peace in protracted conflicts by conducting a comparative case study on Northern Ireland and Korea. Similarities in the histories of the conflicts and the concurrences in the peace processes have been attracting policy makers and researchers to share lessons between the Northern Ireland and Korean peace processes. However, the peacebuilding role of women and their transversal perspective have not yet received significant attention compared to the high-level agreements, signed predominantly by male politicians. This article identifies the similarities in the peacebuilding activities of women in Northern Ireland and Korea, in terms of their recognition of the interconnection between identity politics and patriarchy, building relationships across the divide through transversal dialogue, and initiating nonviolent peace movements against the militarism of their societies. The comparative case study also shows dissimilarities between the two cases, with regard to the freedom of women to move beyond boundaries, and being part of the official peace process. This article concludes the role of women in both contexts is a key element in sustainable peacebuilding; however, it appears that women’s peacebuilding would not be able to reach its full potential to break down violent structures in conflict-affected societies, as long as their transversal perspective remains at the level of social movement, not part of peacebuilding at all levels of societies, including high-level negotiations.

Keywords: women, Gender, peacebuilding, peace process, Northern Ireland, Korea

Topics: Conflict, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarism, Peacebuilding, Peace Processes, Post-Conflict, Violence Regions: Asia, East Asia, Europe, Western Europe Countries: North Korea, South Korea, United Kingdom

Year: 2019

Citation:

Vaittinen, Tiina, Amanda Donahoe, Rahel Kunz, Silja Bára Ómarsdóttir, and Sanam Roohi. 2019. “Care as Everyday Peacebuilding.” Peacebuilding 7 (2): 194–209.

Authors: Tiina Vaittinen, Amanda Donahoe, Rahel Kunz, Silja Bára Ómarsdóttir, Sanam Roohi

Abstract:

Analyses of everyday peace provide a critical response to existing peace practices. However, absent from these discussions is the feminist research that theorizes peace through everyday practices of care. We argue that contemporary debates on everyday peace should engage with this largely forgotten tradition. We explore the contributions of this research through case studies that span the north-south divide: from Northern Ireland to Aceh, and Kashmir to Reykjavik. Demonstrating how care is an essential ingredient of everyday peace, we suggest that a care lens allows us to reframe the understanding of everyday peace to provide a fuller picture that also addresses the complex and contradictory nature of social relations involved in everyday peacebuilding. By resolving conflicts over immediate care needs and building the capacity of communities in ways that subtly challenge the fixity of conflict, care cumulatively creates possibilities for peaceful transformation.

Keywords: care, everyday peace, trust, social transformation, feminist peace research

Topics: Conflict, Economies, Care Economies, Feminisms, Peacebuilding Regions: Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, Western Europe Countries: Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland

Year: 2019

Citation:

Ashe, Fidelma. 2019. Gender, Nationalism and Conflict Transformation: New Themes and Old Problems In Northern Ireland Politics. London: Routledge.

Author: Fidelma Ashe

Annotation:

Topics: Conflict, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Peace Processes, Sexuality Regions: Europe, Western Europe Countries: United Kingdom

Year: 2019

Citation:

Connors, Niall. 2019. "Education and the Humanitarian Space: Is There a Dissonance between Military Education and Military Practice?" Irish Studies in International Affairs 30: 171-93.

Author: Niall Connors

Abstract:

Crossing the domains of foreign policy, defence policy and gender theory, this paper focuses on education and the humanitarian space, specifically, an analysis of whether there is a dissonance between military education and military practice in an Irish context. The paper argues that Irish Defence Forces' activity as peacekeepers can be framed within the human security paradigm, aligned with a national perception of self as good global citizens, and can reasonably be characterised as humanitarian. In this context, the paper argues that the human security paradigm offers a cosmopolitan, agency-oriented, feminist perspective on the humanitarian space and should prompt a re-examination of the gendered nature of the concepts of peace, peacekeeping and ‘citizenship in practice’. The paper concludes positing that a theory-practice gap exists between military education and military practice in an Irish context, and suggests a re-orientation of military education programmes to include a more feminist, cosmopolitan perspective.

Keywords: human security, peacekeeping forces, masculinity, feminism, environmental security, defense policy, military operations, men, military alliances

Topics: Citizenship, Feminisms, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Peacekeeping, Security, Human Security Regions: Europe, Western Europe Countries: Ireland

Year: 2019

Citation:

McWilliams, Monica. 2015. "Women at the Peace Table: The Gender Dynamics of Peace Negotiations." In Gender and Peacebuilding, edited by Maureen Flaherty, 229-244. London: Lexington Press.

Author: Monica McWilliams

Abstract:

Where violence and conflict have become the norm, negotiating an agreement built on peace and justice can be a challenging prospect for those involved. Since 2000, with the introduction of Security Council Resolutions on women, peace, and security, the United Nations has asserted that the environment enabling peace agreements become more inclusive of women and that gender perspectives be taken into account throughout the peace building process. This chapter draws on examples from the Northern Ireland peace process to show the changes that took place when a group of women moved out of the political activism of civic society to become engaged in the more formal politics of peace negotiations. The women activists grasped the opportunities of the “constitutional moment” to frame gender-specific interests within the new constitutional framework of the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. They built on skills honed through years of activism to form the Women’s Coalition, a political party that was involved in the multi-party peace negotiations, and became signatories to the peace agreement. However, in the transitional space that opens up following a peace agreement, what gets resourced and implemented often falls short of what was promised. Despite its success in the negotiating process, enforcing the proposals on women’s interests in the aftermath proved to be the most difficult task. Where a democratic deficit exists, with women continuing to be excluded from political participation, those who have struggled to build a new society will ask for whom was the reconstruction meant. For a genuinely transformative process to take place, women’s interests must not be left in the “aspirational/to do” list but instead form a central part of the “constitutional” and legislative guarantees for the new society.

Keywords: women, Gender, peace processes, peace agreements, Northern Ireland

Topics: Civil Society, Democracy / Democratization, Conflict, Gender, Women, International Organizations, Justice, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Political Participation, Peace Processes, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, Violence Regions: Europe, Western Europe Countries: United Kingdom

Year: 2015

Citation:

Mackay, Fiona, and Cera Murtagh. 2019. “New Institutions, New Gender Rules? A Feminist Institutionalist Lens on Women and Power-Sharing.” feminists@law 9 (1).

Authors: Fiona Mackay, Cera Murtagh

Abstract:

This article examines the apparent tension between power-sharing as the dominant approach to conflict settlement and the inclusion of women and provisions for gender equality as promoted through the Women, Peace and Security agenda. We argue that applying a feminist institutionalist (FI) lens - which attends to the interactions between political and social institutions, and the interplay between formal and informal rules, norms and practices - provides a means of explaining the so-called ‘gendered paradox of power-sharing’, including the gap between the promise of formal frameworks and outcomes for women in practice. We draw upon extant feminist research on three post-conflict power-sharing cases: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Ireland, and Burundi. Using the concepts of: nested newness, formal and informal institutions, the gendered logic of appropriateness, and gendered actors, we illuminate why it has been so difficult for the gender progressive institutional innovations to be instantiated. In so doing, we answer the call of Byrne and McCulloch (2012) for more systematic analysis and theorising around the gendered paradox of power-sharing, and we also provide a basis for identifying what institutional mechanisms might be needed to embed the inclusion of women and the integration of the WPS norms in power-sharing frameworks in the future.

Keywords: power-sharing, feminist institutionalism, Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, women, peace and security

Topics: Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Peace Processes, Post-Conflict, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS Regions: Africa, East Africa, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe, Western Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Burundi, United Kingdom

Year: 2019

Citation:

Pierson, Claire. 2019. "Gendering Peace in Northern Ireland: The Role of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security." Capital & Class 43 (1): 57-71.

Author: Claire Pierson

Abstract:

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on ‘women, peace and security’ was passed in 2000 to recognise and enhance women’s participation in peace-building. The Resolution has growing global significance in conflicted societies yet there is limited analysis of its implementation in specific social contexts. Utilising feminist theory on gender in conflicted societies and original empirical evidence from key grassroots community activists in Northern Ireland, I will consider the potential of the 1325 framework as a tool for conceptualising and achieving gender security and equality. This article contributes to an understanding of the importance of deep contextual interpretation for implementation of the women, peace and security agenda and argues for a feminist intersectional interpretation of the Resolution to enable its transformative potential for both peace-building and gender equality.

Keywords: equality, Gender, Northern Ireland, peace, security, women

Topics: Civil Society, Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, Peacebuilding, Peacekeeping, Peace and Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Europe, Western Europe Countries: United Kingdom

Year: 2019

Citation:

Afonso, Alexandre. 2019. “Migrant Workers or Working Women? Comparing Labour Supply Policies in Post-War Europe.” Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice 21 (3): 251-69.

Author: Alexandre Afonso

Abstract:

Why did some European countries choose migrant labour to expand their labour force in the decades that followed World War II, while others opted for measures to expand female employment via welfare expansion? The paper argues that gender norms and the political strength of the left were important structuring factors in these choices. Female employment required a substantial expansion of state intervention (e.g. childcare; paid maternity leave). Meanwhile, migrant recruitment required minimal public investments, at least in the short term, and preserved traditional gender roles. Using the contrasting cases of Sweden and Switzerland, the article argues that the combination of a weak left (labour unions and social democratic parties) and conservative gender norms fostered the massive expansion of foreign labour and a late development of female labour force participation in Switzerland. In contrast, more progressive gender norms and a strong labour movement put an early end to guest worker programmes in Sweden, and paved the way for policies to promote female labour force participation.

Keywords: labour migration, female employment, Switzerland, Comparative public policy, sweden

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Migration, Economies, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Livelihoods, Post-Conflict Regions: Europe, Nordic states, Northern Europe, Western Europe Countries: Sweden, Switzerland

Year: 2019

Citation:

Egnell, Robert, and Mayesha Alam, eds. 2019. Women and Gender Perspectives in the Military: An International Comparison. Washington, D.C: Georgetown University Press. 

Authors: Robert Egnell, Mayesha Alam

Annotation:

Topics: Gender, Women, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Peace and Security, Peacekeeping, Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Africa, MENA, Southern Africa, Americas, North America, Asia, Middle East, Europe, Nordic states, Northern Europe, Western Europe, Oceania Countries: Australia, Canada, Israel, Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America

Year: 2019

Citation:

Probst, Evelyn, and Isabella Chen. 2020. “Trafficking in Human Beings as a Consequence of Vulnerabilities in Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations: The Case of Austria.” In Women in Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations: An Anthology of Cases from Iraq, Iran, Syria and Other Countries, edited by S. Behnaz Hosseini, 159-78. Vienna: LIT Verlag.

Authors: Evelyn Probst, Isabella Chen

Abstract:

This paper discusses the link between vulnerabilities enhanced by conflict and post-conflict situations and human trafficking from a gender perspective. By applying a feminist view, we will explore the vulnerability paradigm and the implications on anti-trafficking measures. Moreover, this paper will offer case studies from the working experience of the Austrian recognizing victims protection facility LEFO - Intervention Centre for Trafficked Women and Girls to outline women’s experiences and specific situations, drawn from practice. Lastly, as this paper shows, the focus should be on human and women’s rights when talking about how to combat human trafficking effectively. The goal of this paper is to show the complexity of vulnerability. It is important to note that recognizing vulnerabilities does not mean to deny a person’s agency. Furthermore, we explore the danger and implications of (re)producing stereotypes by illustrating vulnerabilities as inherent to a person.

Topics: Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Girls, Post-Conflict, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights, Trafficking, Human Trafficking Regions: Europe, Western Europe Countries: Austria

Year: 2020