Department of International Relations 75th Anniversary Public Lecture Series

Understanding and addressing matters of international peace and security is incomplete without taking account of the gendered nature of conflict and peace processes. Recognizing the value that gender lenses bring to its policy domain, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1325 on Women and Peace and Security in October 2000. As preparations begin for the 25th anniversary of the adoption next year, advocates of the Resolution – and the women, peace and security (WPS) agenda that emerged from it – can celebrate the increasing attention now given to gender issues in international peace and security. They also need to contend with charges about the use of the agenda to ‘gender-wash’ suspect international interventions and its imposition sometimes at the cost of local articulations of feminist peace. This lecture presents an assessment of the evolution of the global WPS agenda, with a focus on its implementation in South Asia, and draws on lessons learnt to offer potential pathways for the next 25 years.

About the speaker
Soumita Basu is Associate Professor of International Relations at the South Asian University, New Delhi. She has published on gender, international security and the United Nations in edited volumes as well as journals, including International Affairs, International Political Science Review, International Studies Perspectives, Politics & Gender, and Security Dialogue. With Paul Kirby and Laura J Shepherd, she co-edited New Directions in Women, Peace and Security (Bristol University Press, 2020). In 2023, she was awarded a grant-in-aid by the Indian Council of Social Science Research for a research project titled 'India and the UN Security Council: Reaching Beyond the Permanent Seat.'

About the chair
Bina D'Costa is Professor in the Department of International Relations, Coral Bell School of Asia-Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University. Her research interests span migration, children and conflict, gender, human rights and justice. As a UN staff member, Bina has worked in South and Southeast Asia, Eastern and Southern Africa, and the Middle East. Her publications include Cascades of Violence: War, Crime and Peacebuilding Across South Asia (co-authored with John Braithwaite, ANU Press, 2018); Children and Violence: The Politics of Conflict in South Asia (Cambridge University Press, 2016); and Nationbuilding, Gender and War Crimes in South Asia (Routledge, 2011, 2013)

This Public Lecture is held as part of a series celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Department of International Relations, located within the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at The Australian National University. You can find more information about the Department’s history and the other activities being held to mark the anniversary throughout 2024 here.

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