Women, Peace and Security in a Changing Climate

Citation:

Cohn, Carol, and Claire Duncanson. 2020. “Women, Peace and Security in a Changing Climate.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 22 (5): 742-62.

Authors: Carol Cohn, Claire Duncanson

Abstract:

In this article, we argue that the effort to get the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda implemented in a series of bureaucratic institutions has pulled the agenda quite far from its original motivating intent. Indeed, going down the bureaucratic implementation rabbit hole has made it almost impossible for advocates to stay in touch with the foundational WPS question: how do you get to gender-just sustainable peace? As we approach the twentieth anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, we argue that WPS advocates need to return to that question, but in doing so, must also acknowledge the changed context. One striking change is that climate breakdown is both more acute and more apparent than in 2000, and any attempt to build gender-just sustainable peace will face serious climate-induced challenges. However, the climate crisis creates not only challenges for the WPS agenda, but also opportunities. The sustainability of peace and of the planet are inextricably linked, and we argue that the realization of the WPS agenda requires transformations to social, political, and, most importantly, economic structures that are precisely the same as the transformations needed to ward off greater climate catastrophe.

Keywords: women, peace and security, UNSCR 1325, feminist political economy, climate, peacebuilding

Topics: Economies, Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms, Feminist Political Economy, Peace and Security, Peacebuilding, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325

Year: 2020