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GLOBAL POLITICS, ECONOMICS, AND IDEAS May/June 2001 www.foreignpolicy.com Women Waging Peace: Inclusive Security Swanee Hunt and Cristina Posa Reprinted with permission from Foreign Policy 124 May/June 2001 2001 by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace FP Foreign Policy

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GLOBAL POLITICS, ECONOMICS, AND IDEAS

May/June 2001 www.foreignpolicy.com

Women Waging Peace: Inclusive Security

Swanee Hunt and Cristina Posa

Reprinted with permission from Foreign Policy 124 May/June 2001 2001 by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

FPForeign Policy

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38 Foreign Policy

You can’t end wars simply by declaring peace. “Inclusive security” rests onthe principle that fundamental social changes are necessary to preventrenewed hostilities. Women have proven time and again their unique abilityto bridge seemingly insurmountable divides. So why aren’t they at the negoti-ating table? | By Swanee Hunt and Cristina Posa

A llowing men who plan wars to planpeace is a bad habit. But interna-tional negotiators and policymakerscan break that habit by including

peace promoters, not just warriors, at the negotiat-ing table. More often than not, those peace pro-moters are women. Certainly, some extraordinarymen have changed the course of history with theirpeacemaking; likewise, a few belligerent womenhave made it to the top of the political ladder or, atthe grass-roots level, have taken the roles of suicidebombers or soldiers. Exceptions aside, however,women are often the most powerful voices for mod-eration in times of conflict. While most men cometo the negotiating table directly from the war roomand battlefield, women usually arrive straight out ofcivil activism and—take a deep breath—family care.

Yet, traditional thinking about war and peaceeither ignores women or regards them as victims.This oversight costs the world dearly. The wars of

the last decade have gripped the public consciencelargely because civilians were not merely caught inthe crossfire; they were targeted, deliberately andbrutally, by military strategists. Just as warfare hasbecome “inclusive”—with civilian deaths morecommon than soldiers’—so too must our approachtoward ending conflict. Today, the goal is not sim-ply the absence of war, but the creation of sus-tainable peace by fostering fundamental societalchanges. In this respect, the United States and othercountries could take a lesson from Canada, whoseinnovative “human security” initiative—by makinghuman beings and their communities, rather thanstates, its point of reference—focuses on safetyand protection, particularly of the most vulnerablesegments of a population.

The concept of “inclusive security,” a diverse, cit-izen-driven approach to global stability, emphasizeswomen’s agency, not their vulnerability. Rather thanmotivated by gender fairness, this concept is drivenby efficiency: Women are crucial to inclusive securitysince they are often at the center of nongovernmen-tal organizations (ngos), popular protests, electoralreferendums, and other citizen-empowering move-ments whose influence has grown with the globalspread of democracy. An inclusive security approachexpands the array of tools available to police, mili-tary, and diplomatic structures by adding collabora-tion with local efforts to achieve peace. Every effort

Swanee Hunt is director of the Women in Public Policy Pro-

gram at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of

Government. As the United States’ ambassador to Austria

(1993-97), she founded the “Vital Voices: Women in Democ-

racy” initiative. Cristina Posa, a former judicial clerk at the

United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the for-

mer Yugoslavia, is an attorney at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen &

Hamilton in New York.

Women Waging Peace

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May | June 2001 39

to bridge divides, even if unsuccessful, has value,both in lessons learned and links to be built on later.Local actors with crucial experience resolving con-flicts, organizing political movements, managingrelief efforts, or working with military forces bringthat experience into ongoing peace processes.

International organizations are slowly recognizingthe indispensable role that women play in preventingwar and sustaining peace. On October 31, 2000, theUnited Nations Security Council issued Resolution1325 urging the secretary-general to expand the role ofwomen in U.N. field-based operations, especiallyamong military observers, civilian police, human rightsworkers, and humanitarian personnel. The Organiza-tion for Security and Co-operation in Europe (osce)is working to move women off the gender sidelines andinto the everyday activities of the organization—par-ticularly in the Office for Democratic Institutions andHuman Rights, which has been useful in monitoringelections and human rights throughout Europe and the

former Soviet Union. Last November, the EuropeanParliament passed a hard-hitting resolution calling onEuropean Union members (and the European Com-mission and Council) to promote the equal participa-tion of women in diplomatic conflict resolution; toensure that women fill at least 40 percent of all recon-ciliation, peacekeeping, peace-enforcement, peace-building, and conflict-prevention posts; and to sup-port the creation and strengthening of ngos (includingwomen’s organizations) that focus on conflict preven-tion, peace building, and post-conflict reconstruction.

But such strides by international organizationshave done little to correct the deplorable extent towhich local women have been relegated to the marginsof police, military, and diplomatic efforts. Consider thatBosnian women were not invited to participate in theDayton talks, which ended the war in Bosnia, eventhough during the conflict 40 women’s associationsremained organized and active across ethnic lines.Not surprisingly, this exclusion has subsequently char-

The Weaker Sex... During a peace march to a village in western Chechnya that was the scene of an allegedmassacre, mothers of Russian soldiers confront Russian troops.

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40 Foreign Policy

[ Women Waging Peace ]

Clockwise: A Chilean woman speaks out against former dictator AugustoPinochet; Indonesian women call for peace as they protest the parliamentarycommittee investigating President Abdurrahman Wahid for alleged corruption;Japanese activists demand the withdrawl of U.S. Marines from Japan.

Women Should Be Seen but Not Heard...

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May | June 2001 41

acterized—and undermined—the implementation ofthe Dayton accord. During a 1997 trip to Bosnia,U.S. President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State MadeleineAlbright, and National Security Advisor Samuel Bergerhad a miserable meeting with intransigent politicianselected under the ethnic-based requirements of Day-ton. During the same period, First Lady Hillary Rod-ham Clinton engaged a dozen women from across thecountry who shared story after story of their coura-geous and remarkably effective work to restore theircommunities. At the end of the day, a grim Berger facedthe press, offering no encouraging word from themeetings with the political dinosaurs. The first lady’smeeting with the energetic womenactivists was never mentioned.

We can ignore women’s work aspeacemakers, or we can harness itsfull force across a wide range ofactivities relevant to the securitysphere: bridging the divide betweengroups in conflict, influencing localsecurity forces, collaborating withinternational organizations, andseeking political office.

B R I D G I N G T H E D I V I D E

The idea of women as peacemakers is not politicalcorrectness run amok. Social science research sup-ports the stereotype of women as generally more col-laborative than men and thus more inclined towardconsensus and compromise. Ironically, women’s sta-tus as second-class citizens is a source of empower-ment, since it has made women adept at findinginnovative ways to cope with problems. Becausewomen are not ensconced within the mainstream,those in power consider them less threatening, allow-ing women to work unimpeded and “below theradar screen.” Since they usually have not beenbehind a rifle, women, in contrast to men, have lesspsychological distance to reach across a conflictline. (They are also more accepted on the “otherside,” because it is assumed that they did not do anyof the actual killing.) Women often choose an iden-tity, notably that of mothers, that cuts across inter-national borders and ethnic enclaves. Given theirroles as family nurturers, women have a huge invest-ment in the stability of their communities. And sincewomen know their communities, they can predict theacceptance of peace initiatives, as well as brokeragreements in their own neighborhoods.

As U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan remarked

in October 2000 to the Security Council, “For gen-erations, women have served as peace educators,both in their families and in their societies. Theyhave proved instrumental in building bridges ratherthan walls.” Women have been able to bridge thedivide even in situations where leaders have deemedconflict resolution futile in the face of so-calledintractable ethnic hatreds. Striking examples ofwomen making the impossible possible come fromSudan, a country splintered by decades of civil war.In the south, women working together in the NewSudan Council of Churches conducted their ownversion of shuttle diplomacy—perhaps without the

panache of jetting between capitals—and organizedthe Wunlit tribal summit in February 1999 to bringan end to bloody hostilities between the Dinka andNuer peoples. As a result, the Wunlit Covenant guar-anteed peace between the Dinka and the Nuer, whoagreed to share rights to water, fishing, and grazingland, which had been key points of disagreement. Thecovenant also returned prisoners and guaranteedfreedom of movement for members of both tribes.

On another continent, women have bridged theseemingly insurmountable differences between Indiaand Pakistan by organizing huge rallies to unite cit-izens from both countries. Since 1994, the Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy hasworked to overcome the hysterics of the nationalistmedia and jingoistic governing elites by holdingannual conventions where Indians and Pakistaniscan affirm their shared histories, forge networks,and act together on specific initiatives. In 1995, forinstance, activists joined forces on behalf of fishersand their children who were languishing in eachside’s jails because they had strayed across maritimeboundaries. As a result, the adversarial governmentsreleased the prisoners and their boats.

In addition to laying the foundation for broaderaccords by tackling the smaller, everyday prob-lems that keep people apart, women have also

Ironically, women’s status as second-class citizens is a source of empowerment, since it has

made women adept at finding innovative ways to cope with problems.

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42 Foreign Policy

[ Women Waging Peace ]

taken the initiative in drafting principles for com-prehensive settlements. The platform of JerusalemLink, a federation of Palestinian and Israeliwomen’s groups, served as a blueprint for negoti-ations over the final status of Jerusalem duringthe Oslo process. Former President Clinton, theweek of the failed Camp David talks in July 2000,remarked simply, “If we’d had women at CampDavid, we’d have an agreement.”

Sometimes conflict resolution requires unshack-ling the media. Journalists can nourish a fair and tol-erant vision of society or feed the public poisonous,one-sided, and untruthful accounts of the “news”

that stimulate violent conflict. Supreme Allied Com-mander of Europe Wesley Clark understood asmuch when he ordered nato to bomb transmittersin Kosovo to prevent the Milosevic media machinefrom spewing ever more inflammatory rhetoric.One of the founders of the independent Kosovoradio station RTV-21 realized that there were“many instances of male colleagues reporting withanger, which served to raise the tensions ratherthan lower them.” As a result, RTV-21 now runsworkshops in radio, print, and tv journalism to cul-tivate a core of female journalists with a nonin-flammatory style. The osce and the bbc, whichtrain promising local journalists in Kosovo andBosnia, would do well to seek out women, who gen-erally bring with them a reputation for moderationin unstable situations.

I N F L U E N C I N G S E C U R I T Y F O R C E S

The influence of women on warriors dates back to theancient Greek play Lysistrata. Borrowing from thatplay’s story, former South African President NelsonMandela suggested at last summer’s Arusha peacetalks on the conflict in Burundi that if Burundianmen began fighting again, their women should with-hold “conjugal rights” (like cooking, he added).

Women can also act as a valuable interfacebetween their countries’ security forces (police andmilitary) and the public, especially in cases whenrapid response is necessary to head off violence.Women in Northern Ireland, for example, havehelped calm the often deadly “marching season” byfacilitating mediations between Protestant unionistsand Catholic nationalists. The women bring togetherkey members of each community, many of whom arereleased prisoners, as mediators to calm tensions.This circle of mediators works with local policethroughout the marching season, meeting quietlyand maintaining contacts on a 24-hour basis. This

intervention provides a powerfulextension of the limited tools of thelocal police and security forces.

Likewise, an early goal of theSudanese Women’s Voice for Peacewas to meet and talk with the mil-itary leaders of the various rebelarmies. These contacts securedwomen’s access to areas controlledby the revolutionary movements,a critical variable in the success orfailure of humanitarian efforts in

war zones. Women have also worked with the mil-itary to search for missing people, a common ele-ment in the cycle of violence. In Colombia, forexample, women were so persistent in theirdemands for information regarding 150 peopleabducted from a church in 1999 that the armyeventually gave them space on a military base foran information and strategy center. The militaryworked alongside the women and their familiestrying to track down the missing people. In short,through moral suasion, local women often haveinfluence where outsiders, such as internationalhumans rights agencies, do not.

That influence may have allowed a female inves-tigative reporter like Maria Cristina Caballero to gowhere a man could not go, venturing on horsebackalone, eight hours into the jungle to tape a four-hourinterview with the head of the paramilitary forces inColombia. She also interviewed another guerillaleader and published an award-winning comparisonof the transcripts, showing where the two mortalenemies shared the same vision. “This [was] biggerthan a story,” she later said, “this [was] hope forpeace.” Risking their lives to move back and forthacross the divide, women like Caballero performwork that is just as important for regional stabi-lization as the grandest Plan Colombia.

Nelson Mandela suggested at last summer’sArusha peace talks that if Burundian men beganfighting again, their women should withhold “con-jugal rights” (like cooking, he added).

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I N T E R N AT I O N A L C O L L A B O R AT I O N

Given the nature of “inclusive” war, security forcesare increasingly called upon to ensure the safe pas-sage of humanitarian relief across conflict zones.Women serve as indispensable contacts betweencivilians, warring parties, and relief organizations.Without women’s knowledge of the local scene, themandate of the military to support ngos wouldoften be severely hindered, if not impossible.

In rebel-controlled areas of Sudan, women haveworked closely with humanitarian organizations toprevent food from being diverted from those who

need it most. According to Catherine Loria DukuJeremano of Oxfam: “The normal pattern was tohand out relief to the men, who were then expectedto take it home to be distributed to their family.However, many of the men did what they pleasedwith the food they received: either selling it directly,often in exchange for alcohol, or giving food to thewives they favored.” Sudanese women worked closelywith tribal chiefs and relief organizations to establisha system allowing women to pick up the food fortheir families, despite contrary cultural norms.

In Pristina, Kosovo, Vjosa Dobruna, a pediatric

Grass-roots women’s organiza-tions in Israel come in two col-ors: black and green. TheWomen in Black, founded in1988, and the Women inGreen, founded in 1993, couldnot be further apart on thepolitical spectrum, but bothclaim the mantle of “woman-hood” and “motherhood” inthe ongoing struggle to end theIsraeli-Palestinian conflict.

One month after the Pales-tinian intifada broke out inDecember 1988, a small groupof women decided to meetevery Friday afternoon at abusy Jerusalem intersectionwearing all black and holdinghand-shaped signs that read:“Stop the Occupation.” Theweekly gatherings continuedand soon spread across Israelto Europe, the United States,and then to Asia.

While the movement wasoriginally dedicated to achiev-ing peace in the Middle East,other groups soon protestedagainst repression in the Balkansand India. For these activists,their status as women lendsthem a special authority whenit comes to demanding peace.

In the words of the AsianWomen’s Human RightsCouncil: “We are the Womenin Black…women, unmaskingthe many horrific faces of morepublic ‘legitimate’ forms ofviolence—state repression,communalism, ethnic cleans-ing, nationalism, and wars....”

Today, the Women in Blackin Israel continue their nonvio-lent opposition to the occupa-tion in cooperation with theumbrella group Coalition ofWomen for a Just Peace. Theyhave been demonstrating againstthe closures of various Palestin-ian cities, arguing that the block-ades prevent pregnant womenfrom accessing healthcare serv-ices and keep students fromattending school. The group alsocalls for the full participation ofwomen in peace negotiations.

While the Women in Blackstood in silent protest worldwide,a group of “grandmothers,mothers, wives, and daughters;housewives and professionals;secular and religious” formedthe far-right Women in Green in1993 out of “a shared love,devotion and concern for Israel.”Known for the signature green

hats they wear at ral-lies, the Women in

Green emerged as a protest tothe Oslo accords on the groundsthat Israel made too many con-cessions to Yasir Arafat’s Pales-tinian Liberation Organization.The group opposes returning theGolan Heights to Syria, sharingsovereignty over Jerusalem withthe Palestinians, and insists that“Israel remain a Jewish state.”

The Women in Green boastsome 15,000 members in Israel,and while they have not gar-nered the global support of theWomen in Black, 15,000 Amer-icans have joined their cause.An ardent supporter of IsraeliPrime Minister Ariel Sharon,the group seeks to educate theIsraeli electorate through week-ly street theater and publicdemonstrations, as well as arti-cles, posters, and newspaperadvertisements.

While the groups’ messagesand methods diverge, their exis-tence and influence demon-strate that women can mobi-lize support for politicalchange—no matter what colorthey wear.

–FP

The Black and the Green

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[ Women Waging Peace ]

A Woman’s Place Is in the Home...Top: Rebel leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia shake hands with peacenegotiator and former Foreign Minister María Emma Mejía. Below, left to right: A femalemember of the Swedish Infantry Battalion, which is a part of the United Nations peace-keeping force in Cyprus; Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire of Northern Irelandmeets with Palestinians. Bottom: North and South Korean delegations hold peace talks.

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neurologist and human rights leader, is now the jointadministrator for civil society for the U.N. InterimAdministration Mission in Kosovo (unmik). In Sep-tember 2000, at the request of nato, she organized amultiethnic strategic planning session to integratewomen throughout unmik. Before that gathering,women who had played very significant roles in theircommunities felt shunned by the international organ-izations that descended on Kosovo following thebombing campaign. Vjosa’s conference pulled themback into the mainstream, bringing international play-ers into the conference to hear fromlocal women what stabilizing meas-ures they were planning, rather thanthe other way around. There, as inBosnia, the osce has created a quotasystem for elected office, mandatingthat women comprise one third ofeach party’s candidate list; leaderslike Vjosa helped turn that policyinto reality.

In addition to helping aid organ-izations find better ways to distributerelief or helping the U.N. and osce implement theirambitious mandates, women also work closely withthem to locate and exchange prisoners of war. As thepeace processes in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, and theMiddle East illustrate, a deadlock on the exchange andrelease of prisoners can be a major obstacle to achiev-ing a final settlement. Women activists in Armenia andAzerbaijan have worked closely with the Interna-tional Helsinki Citizens Assembly and the osce forthe release of hostages in the disputed region ofNagorno-Karabakh, where tens of thousands of peo-ple have been killed. In fact, these women’s knowledgeof the local players and the situation on the groundwould make them indispensable in peace negotia-tions to end this 13-year-old conflict.

R E A C H I N G F O R P O L I T I C A L O F F I C E

In 1977, women organizers in Northern Ireland won theNobel Peace Prize for their nonsectarian public demon-strations. Two decades later, Northern Irish womenare showing how diligently women must still work notonly to ensure a place at the negotiating table but alsoto sustain peace by reaching critical mass in politicaloffice. In 1996, peace activists Monica McWilliams(now a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly)and May Blood (now a member of the House of Lords)were told that only leaders of the top 10 political par-ties—all men—would be included in the peace talks.

With only six weeks to organize, McWilliams andBlood gathered 10,000 signatures to create a new polit-ical party (the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition, orniwc) and got themselves on the ballot. They werevoted into the top 10 and earned a place at the table.

The niwc’s efforts paid off. The women draftedkey clauses of the Good Friday Agreement regardingthe importance of mixed housing, the particular dif-ficulties of young people, and the need for resourcesto address these problems. The niwc also lobbied forthe early release and reintegration of political pris-

oners in order to combat social exclusion and pushedfor a comprehensive review of the police service sothat all members of society would accept it. Clearly,the women’s prior work with individuals and fami-lies affected by “the Troubles” enabled them to for-mulate such salient contributions to the agreement.In the subsequent public referendum on the GoodFriday Agreement, Mo Mowlam, then British secre-tary of state for Northern Ireland, attributed theoverwhelming success of the yes Campaign to theniwc’s persistent canvassing and lobbying.

Women in the former Yugoslavia are also step-ping forward to wrest the reins of political controlfrom extremists (including women, such as ultra-nationalist Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic)who destroyed their country. Last December, ZoricaTrifunovic, founding member of the local Womenin Black (an antiwar group formed in Belgrade inOctober 1991), led a meeting that united 90 womenleaders of pro-democracy political campaigns acrossthe former Yugoslavia. According to polling by theNational Democratic Institute, the grass-roots, get-out-the-vote work of groups such as Vox Femina (alocal ngo that participated in the December meet-ing) convinced hesitant women to vote for change;those votes contributed to the margin that oustedPresident Slobodan Milosevic.

Argentina provides another example of womenmaking the transition from protesters to politicians:

The grass-roots, get-out-the-vote work of VoxFemina convinced hesitant Yugoslav women to votefor change; those votes contributed to the marginthat ousted President Slobodan Milosevic.

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Several leaders of the Madres de la Plaza de Mayomovement, formed in the 1970s to protest the “dis-appearances” of their children at the hands of themilitary regime, have now been elected to politicaloffice. And in Russia, the Committee of Soldiers’Mothers—a protest group founded in 1989 demand-ing their sons’ rights amidst cruel conditions in theRussian military—has grown into a powerful organ-ization with 300 chapters and official political sta-tus. In January, U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Jim

Collins described the committee as a significant fac-tor in countering the most aggressive voices pro-moting military force in Chechnya. Similar mothers’groups have sprung up across the former SovietUnion and beyond—including the Mothers ofTiananmen Square. International security forces anddiplomats will find no better allies than these mobi-lized mothers, who are tackling the toughest, mosthardened hostilities.

Y O U ’ V E C O M E A L O N G WAY, M AY B E

Common sense dictates that women should be cen-tral to peacemaking, where they can bring their expe-rience in conflict resolution to bear. Yet, despite allof the instances where women have been able toplay a role in peace negotiations, women remain rel-egated to the sidelines. Part of the problem is struc-tural: Even though more and more women are leg-islators and soldiers, underrepresentation persists inthe highest levels of political and military hierar-chies. The presidents, prime ministers, party leaders,cabinet secretaries, and generals who typically nego-tiate peace settlements are overwhelmingly men.There is also a psychological barrier that precludeswomen from sitting in on negotiations: Waging waris still thought of as a “man’s job,” and as such, thetask of stopping war often is delegated to men(although if we could begin to think about the processnot in terms of stopping war but promoting peace,

women would emerge as the more logical choice). Butthe key reason behind women’s marginalization maybe that everyone recognizes just how good women areat forging peace. A U.N. official once stated that, inAfrica, women are often excluded from negotiatingteams because the war leaders “are afraid the womenwill compromise” and give away too much.

Some encouraging signs of change, however, areemerging. Rwandan President Paul Kagame, dis-mayed at his difficulty in attracting international aid

to his genocide-ravaged country,recently distinguished Rwanda fromthe prevailing image of brutality incentral Africa by appointing threewomen to his negotiating team forthe conflict in the DemocraticRepublic of the Congo. In an unusu-ally healthy tit for tat, the Ugan-dans responded by immediatelyappointing a woman to their team.

Will those women make a dif-ference? Negotiators sometimes

worry that having women participate in the discus-sion may change the tone of the meeting. They’reright: A British participant in the Northern Irelandpeace talks insightfully noted that when the partiesbecame bogged down by abstract issues and pastoffenses, “the women would come and talk abouttheir loved ones, their bereavement, their children andtheir hopes for the future.” These deeply personalcomments, rather than being a diversion, helpedkeep the talks focused. The women’s experiencesreminded the parties that security for all citizens waswhat really mattered.

The role of women as peacemakers can beexpanded in many ways. Mediators can andshould insist on gender balance among negotiatorsto ensure a peace plan that is workable at thecommunity level. Cultural barriers can be over-come if high-level visitors require that a criticalmass (usually one third) of the local interlocutorsbe women (and not simply present as wives). Whendrafting principles for negotiation, diplomatsshould determine whether women’s groups havealready agreed upon key conflict-bridging princi-ples, and whether their approach can serve as abasis for general negotiations.

Moreover, to foster a larger pool of potential peace-makers, embassies in conflict areas should broadentheir regular contact with local women leaders andsponsor women in training programs, both at home andabroad. Governments can also do their part by pro-

International security forces and diplomats will find no better allies than these mobilized mothers, who are tackling the toughest, most hardened hostilities.

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viding information technology and training to womenactivists through private and public partnerships. Inter-net communication allows women peace builders tonetwork among themselves, as well as exchange tacticsand strategies with their global counterparts.

“Women understood the cost of the war andwere genuinely interested in peace,” recalls retiredAdmiral Jonathan Howe, reflecting on his experienceleading the U.N. mission in Somalia in the early1990s. “They’d had it with their warrior husbands.They were a force willing to say enough is enough.

The men were sitting around talking and chewingqat, while the women were working away. Theywere such a positive force. . . . You have to look at allelements in society and be ready to tap into those thatwill be constructive.”

Lasting peace must be homegrown. Inclusive secu-rity helps police forces, military leaders, and diplomatsdo their jobs more effectively by creating coalitionswith the people most invested in stability and mostadept at building peace. Women working on theground are eager to join forces. Just let them in.

The Internet is invaluable in enabling the inclusive security approach advocated in this article. The Weboffers not only a wealth of information but, just as important, relatively cheap and easy access for cit-izens worldwide. Most of the women’s peace-building activities and strategies explored in this articlecan be found on the Web site of Women Waging Peace—a collaborative venture of Harvard University’sJohn F. Kennedy School of Government and the nonprofit organization Hunt Alternatives, which rec-ognize the essential role and contribution of women in preventing violent conflict, stopping war, recon-structing ravaged societies, and sustaining peace in fragile areas around the world. On the site, womenactive in conflict areas can communicate with each other without fear of retribution via a secure server.The women submit narratives detailing their strategies, which can then be read on the public Web site.The site also features a video archive of interviews with each of these women. You need a password toview these interviews, so contact Women Waging Peace online or call (617) 868-3910.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (osce) is an outstanding resource forqualitative and quantitative studies of women’s involvement in conflict prevention. Start with the finalreport of the OSCE Supplementary Implementation Meeting: Gender Issues (Vienna: unifem, 1999),posted on the group’s Web site. The United Nations Development Fund for Women (unifem) also pub-lishes reports on its colorful and easy-to-navigate site. The fund’s informative book, Women at the PeaceTable: Making a Difference (New York: unifem, 2000), available online, features interviews with someof today’s most prominent women peacemakers, including Hanan Ashrawi and Mo Mowlam.

For a look at how globalization is changing women’s roles in governments, companies, and mili-taries, read Cynthia Enloe’s Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Pol-itics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001). In Maneuvers: The International Politics of Mil-itarizing Women’s Lives (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), Enloe examines the military’seffects on women, whether they are soldiers or soldiers’ spouses. For a more general discussion of wherefeminism fits into academia and policymaking, see “Searching for the Princess? Feminist Perspectivesin International Relations” (The Harvard International Review, Fall 1999) by J. Ann Tickner, associ-ate professor of international relations at the University of Southern California.

The Fall 1997 issue of Foreign Policy magazine features two articles that highlight how womenworldwide are simultaneously gaining political clout but also bearing the brunt of poverty: “Womenin Power: From Tokenism to Critical Mass” by Jane S. Jaquette and “Women in Poverty: A NewGlobal Underclass” by Mayra Buvinic.

»For links to relevant Web sites, as well as a comprehensive index of related Foreign Policyarticles, access www.foreignpolicy.com.

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