Does the United Nations’ Women, Peace and Security agenda speak with, for or to women in the Asia Pacific? The development of National Action Plans in the Asia Pacific

ABSTRACT

Using a critical feminist security studies approach, this article explores the emancipatory possibilities of translating the United Nations’ Women, Peace and Security agenda to countries in the Asia Pacific through the development of national and regional level policy frameworks. It asks whether the common pitfalls of emancipation can be overcome in efforts by stakeholders to encourage a more inclusive, grounded and gender aware approach to security in the region. The paper engages the very real political dangers and constraints to pursuing emancipatory politics in this field but ultimately identifies the opportunities for emancipatory action.

KEYWORDS:

• Women, Peace and Security
• Asia Pacific
• Emancipation

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Erratum

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. At the time of writing, the NAP of Timor Leste has not been publicly released yet.

2. The 2014 adoption of the Indonesian NAP appears not to have correlated with international WPS events. The NAP does not reference UNSCR 1325 as its founding document which might manifest unwillingness to engage with the international WPS policy. According to Kholifah (2014), the Government declared the WPS agenda not relevant to the Indonesian context, in order to avoid association with armed conflicts.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council: [Grant Number DP120103171].

Notes on contributors

Katrina Lee-Koo

Associate Professor Katrina Lee-Koo is a Reader in international relations at Monash University and Deputy Director of Monash University’s Gender, Peace and Security Research Centre.  She is recently the co-author of Ethics and Global Security (Routledge, 2014 with Anthony Burke and Matt McDonald) and Children and Global Conflict (Cambridge UP, 2015 with Bina D’Costa and Kim Huynh). She can be emailed at [email protected]

Barbara K. Trojanowska

Barbara K Trojanowska is a PhD candidate at Monash University’s Gender Peace and Security Research Centre. Her research explores Asia-Pacific National Action Plans on Women, Peace and Security and their impact on gender equality. She can be emailed at [email protected]