Peace is Not Merely an Absence of War

 

 

 

Not long ago I spent time in Cambodia at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPCS) as part of a five-week residency to do research and writing on women and war. When I had originally applied to CPCS I was clear about my theoretical approach: feminism. (Technically it was feminist poststructuralism, since you asked.)

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I’d been aware of some great role models for feminist peace and had written previously about one, Jane Addams , but I also discovered Elise Biorn-Hansen Boulding, an early chairperson of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). 

 

I reacquainted myself with pacifist Bertha von Suttner, the first woman to be solely awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and antiwar activist Rosa Luxemburg. Even anarchist Emma Goldman turned up in my research. Pacifist, Marxist, feminist, Quaker or anarchist, these women and their global sisters were and continue to be dedicated to the same thing: anti-war.   

 

War and peace and feminism

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On a slightly different track, feminist scholars have developed a specialty within conflict studies, examining the role of gender in armed conflicts and war. Nearly two decades ago, the importance of this was recognized by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325.

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UNSCR 1325 addresses not only the inordinate impact of war on women, but also the pivotal role women should and do play in conflict management, conflict resolution and sustainable peace.

However, UNSCR 1325 is not a ‘just add women and mix’ solution. It identifies obstacles and opportunities for women (and men) in the long march towards durable peace and why previous efforts haven’t worked. Feminist or nonfeminist or something in between, the point is inclusion and diversity must—and will—triumph over hate, violence and bigotry.

   

And in honour of International Day of Peace (and to counteract the terrifying schoolyard nuclear taunts between the madman and the lunatic), here’s an article about conquest, the ‘right’ to wage war and international law. It’s called “Outlawing War? It Actually Worked”.

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Peace.

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Headline: quote from Jane Addams (1860 - 1935)

Photo: send me an email if you know who made the circa 1970s  protest art I used in this post; I couldn't find a proper source; thanks! 

 

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