Laura McLeod

Configurations of Post-Conflict: Impacts of Representations of Conflict and Post-Conflict upon the (Political) Translations of Gender Security within UNSCR 1325

UNSCR 1325 is a Security Council Resolution designed to operate in post-conflict contexts. ‘Post-conflict’ is a discourse with contested temporal and spatial aspects, raising questions about how different perspectives towards ‘post-conflict’ has affected interpretations of UNSCR 1325 on the ground. Given the contestability of ‘post-conflict’, surprisingly little research has focused upon how what is identified as the ‘post-conflict problem’ shapes responses to UNSCR 1325. To address this gap, I contrast configurations of ‘post-conflict’ within three different initiatives in Serbia that have drawn upon UNSCR 1325. The constructions of ‘post-conflict’ are understood through an analytical strategy concerned with the representation of conflict and post-conflict reconstruction within each initiative. Making explicit antagonisms at the heart of ‘post-conflict’ demonstrates how the logic of gender security as it relates to UNSCR 1325 is shaped by the specific problematization of ‘post-conflict’. This article outlines new empirical research on the utilization of UNSCR 1325 within three different political contexts in Serbia to assert the importance of realizing the contestability of ‘post-conflict’ contexts in shaping how we might respond to UNSCR 1325, and indeed, any international policy or ambition intended as a response to post-conflict situations.

A Feminist Approach to Hybridity: Understanding Local and International Interactions in Producing Post-Conflict Gender Security

Recently, the concept of hybridity has become popular within critical peacebuilding scholarship to explain the interplay of power between local and international actors in post-conflict contexts. However, a nuanced gender lens has often been missing from these analyses. This article develops a feminist critique and approach to hybridity in order to achieve a deeper sense of the effects that experiences and perspectives of international and local actors have upon peacebuilding initiatives. It begins to develop a feminist approach to hybridity via a case study of a gender security initiative concerned with challenging the prevalence of small arms and light weapons (SALW) abuse in domestic violence in Serbia. The article concludes by highlighting how this feminist perspective allows a richer understanding of the power relations shaping local and international interactions.

Back to the future: Temporality and gender security narratives in Serbia

Contemporary debates about security narratives highlight different forms of security: gender security, realist security or human security. The use of such terms often means that we do not recognize subtle variances within these narratives or the implications of these divergences. This article suggests and illustrates a way of achieving a deeper understanding of security narratives through investigating the temporal aspects of narrative content. A case study exploring three forms of gender security narratives among activists of feminist and women’s organizations in Serbia is used to demonstrate that similar perceptions of gender security exist. However, paying attention to the temporal discontinuities within the contents of these gender security narratives makes it possible to identify divergences connected to personal-political imaginations of conflict and post-conflict. These subtle variations in content are potentially product and productive of different policy prescriptions and outcomes. This article concludes by reflecting upon the presence of our past and future in the contents of our contemporary security narratives, suggesting that when we consider security, our analysis should aim to incorporate an understanding of the temporal nature of a security narrative.

The Present and the Future of the Research Excellence Framework Impact Agenda in the UK Academy: A Reflection from Politics and International Studies:

One of the most extensively discussed requirements introduced in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework was impact. In this review piece, we focus on the linear and temporal consequences of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) impact system. We link such consequences to our own research agendas to provide a sense of empirical richness to the broad concerns that arise from the impact agenda and to highlight the effects of the Research Excellence Framework’s linear focus and, crucially, the types of alternative narratives it potentially silences. This ‘silencing’ does not render alternative narratives impossible, but rather makes them difficult to articulate as ‘safe’ options within the existing framework. We highlight how a focus on direct impact could miss the collective nature of impact endeavours, as well as the broader social and cultural benefits of research, and potentially shape and limit the possible research questions posed within this national system. We conclude by opening up some broader questions for the future of impact raised through the consideration of linearity, including the question of ‘measurement’.

The Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding Ten Years on: Critical Reflections and Stimulating Ideas on an Evolving Scholarship

ABSTRACT The Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. This special volume opens up with a selection of nine of the most influential articles published in the journal. JISBs editorial team has asked the authors for their reflections on their original articles, telling us more about the writing process at that time, what they would do differently (with hindsight), or how they see their articles contributing to current debates on intervention and statebuilding. We have selected one article per volume, and we have ordered the contribution starting from volume 1 (2007) to volume 9 (2015). The articles will be made open access for the year, and we highly recommend (re-)reading the original articles along with the comments from the authors.

Gender Politics and Security Discourse: Personal-Political Imaginations and Feminism in ?Post-Conflict? Serbia

Introduction: Interactions Between Gender Politics and Security Discourse 1. Bobans Story: Tracing the Politics of Gender Security 2. Gender Security: A Discourse that Matters 3. Picking the Petals: Profiling Gender Politics 4. Reconceptulasing Security? Interval 5. A Room of Ones Own: Feminism, Peace and Security 6. Pulling the Trigger: Gender, Domestic Violence and Security Conclusion

Gendering Processes of Institutional Design: Activists at the Negotiating Table

The creation of new institutions can open up opportunities to bring about political change sought by marginalized groups. Feminists may want to seize windows of opportunity to advance a gender justice and equality agenda alongside other reforms. However, the negotiation processes through which new institutions are designed are often male-dominated and lack female and feminist voices. Even when included, women seeking to develop an agenda for transformation may be co-opted or muted by the embedded masculinity and institutional complexity of the sites in which they find themselves. These concerns were raised at a roundtable titled “Gendering Institutional Design Process and Negotiations” that was organized as part of the Gendering New Institutions Workshop held at the University of Manchester on 7–8 November 2013. We asked gender advocates involved in the negotiation processes surrounding the design of three new institutions during the 1990s to reflect upon their experiences. The panel was joined by members of the audience, some of whom had negotiation experiences. The conversation presented here is an edited version of this roundtable discussion. All the panel members are academics who were involved as civil society representatives in formal processes of institutional change, all of which are often seen as success stories of feminist intervention. Sheila Meintjes spoke about her experiences as a member of the Women’s National Coalition involved in the drafting of a new Constitution for post-apartheid South Africa. Following decades of anti-apartheid struggle, formal multi-party negotiations from 1990 onwards resulted in an interim Constitution in 1993, South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994 and the subsequent drafting of a final Constitution by 1996. Alice Brown discussed the design of the new Scottish Parliament accompanying the devolution of powers from Westminster to

‘Well, What is the Feminist Perspective on Iraq?’

The three volumes reviewed in this article offer a range of feminist explorations of the Iraq War. Through their gendered lenses, I argue that these books offer alternative ways of thinking about experiences, daily life and temporalities in war and post-war contexts. The books reviewed here can be loosely described as emphasising a standpoint feminist perspective, highlighting how gendered processes, practices, myths, images and expectations shape the day-to-day lives of men and women concerned with the Iraq War in both Iraq and the US. These insights can offer a challenge to the construction and reinforcement of the temporal division crafted between war and peace, making us think again about how we conceptualise violence in international politics.

Book Review: General Politics: Post-Tsunami Reconstruction in Indonesia: Negotiating Normativity through Gender Mainstreaming Initiatives in Aceh

Marjaana Jauhola explores the various gender mainstreaming efforts taking place in the post-tsunami, post-conflict context in Aceh, a region in northwestern Indonesia. Jauhola avoids a simple assessment of how well gender mainstreaming is being implemented in Aceh. Instead, she asks what gender mainstreaming does to ‘bodies and their desires’, and how practices of gender mainstreaming support certain norms as being ‘livable or enjoyable’ (p. ix). Drawing upon historical and ethnographical awareness of Aceh, Jauhola illustrates how post-disaster gender mainstreaming goals conducted by (international) gender experts reaffirm liberal feminist ideals of progressive development. The first chapter unpacks the dynamics of governance feminism, highlighting ways in which heteronormative gender norms are embedded in liberal practices of governmentality. This analysis is used to put forward a view of feminism as a subversion of the desire to govern and to be governed. The second chapter provides an historical contextualisation of how gender and gender mainstreaming is understood in Aceh, reminding us of the ways in which concepts are transformed within local contexts. By drawing upon a range of gender narratives in Aceh, Jauhola illustrates how gender is made intelligible primarily within the context of shari’a Islam.The intersections between local gender and religious norms are made apparent in the remaining three chapters, which all analyse a specific governmental practice and how they retain the normativity of gender mainstreaming goals. There are many things to commend about these chapters, but I would single out Jauhola’s rich understanding of the local history and interpretations of Islam, which is deftly deployed to analyse gender norms and subversions across Aceh. The most theoretically innovative chapter – which has a number of conclusions relevant beyond the Acehnese context – is Chapter 4, which unpacks the use of gender analysis by gender experts to reinforce heteronormative gender norms. Jauhola carefully analyses an Oxfam International radio drama produced to raise awareness of post-tsunami gender mainstreaming opportunities/projects. She demonstrates how the gender analysis used to develop the radio drama has been transformed into depoliticised and disciplined knowledge limiting gender fantasies, where a heteronormative harmonious nuclear family is central to the achievement of liberal gender mainstreaming and development goals. Taken together, the book illustrates that the poststructural confrontation of the issue does not lack policy alternatives but reworks the political (p. 171), calling for a subversive vision of feminism that is in a constant state of flux.The book is an engaging consideration of gender practices that will be of interest to researchers in development studies, IR, post-disaster and post-conflict reconstruction studies, and gender studies.

Book Review: General Politics: Post-Tsunami Reconstruction in Indonesia: Negotiating Normativity through Gender Mainstreaming Initiatives in AcehPost-Tsunami Reconstruction in Indonesia: Negotiating Normativity through Gender Mainstreaming Initiatives in Aceh by MarjaanaJauhola. Abingdon: Routledge, 2013. 232 pp., £80.00, ISBN 9780415527590

Marjaana Jauhola explores the various gender mainstreaming efforts taking place in the post-tsunami, post-conflict context in Aceh, a region in northwestern Indonesia. Jauhola avoids a simple assessment of how well gender mainstreaming is being implemented in Aceh. Instead, she asks what gender mainstreaming does to ‘bodies and their desires’, and how practices of gender mainstreaming support certain norms as being ‘livable or enjoyable’ (p. ix). Drawing upon historical and ethnographical awareness of Aceh, Jauhola illustrates how post-disaster gender mainstreaming goals conducted by (international) gender experts reaffirm liberal feminist ideals of progressive development. The first chapter unpacks the dynamics of governance feminism, highlighting ways in which heteronormative gender norms are embedded in liberal practices of governmentality. This analysis is used to put forward a view of feminism as a subversion of the desire to govern and to be governed. The second chapter provides an historical contextualisation of how gender and gender mainstreaming is understood in Aceh, reminding us of the ways in which concepts are transformed within local contexts. By drawing upon a range of gender narratives in Aceh, Jauhola illustrates how gender is made intelligible primarily within the context of shari’a Islam.The intersections between local gender and religious norms are made apparent in the remaining three chapters, which all analyse a specific governmental practice and how they retain the normativity of gender mainstreaming goals. There are many things to commend about these chapters, but I would single out Jauhola’s rich understanding of the local history and interpretations of Islam, which is deftly deployed to analyse gender norms and subversions across Aceh. The most theoretically innovative chapter – which has a number of conclusions relevant beyond the Acehnese context – is Chapter 4, which unpacks the use of gender analysis by gender experts to reinforce heteronormative gender norms. Jauhola carefully analyses an Oxfam International radio drama produced to raise awareness of post-tsunami gender mainstreaming opportunities/projects. She demonstrates how the gender analysis used to develop the radio drama has been transformed into depoliticised and disciplined knowledge limiting gender fantasies, where a heteronormative harmonious nuclear family is central to the achievement of liberal gender mainstreaming and development goals. Taken together, the book illustrates that the poststructural confrontation of the issue does not lack policy alternatives but reworks the political (p. 171), calling for a subversive vision of feminism that is in a constant state of flux.The book is an engaging consideration of gender practices that will be of interest to researchers in development studies, IR, post-disaster and post-conflict reconstruction studies, and gender studies.