Efforts to adopt provisions of the United Nations Women, Peace and Security agenda in local policy contexts are often hailed enthusiastically by gender advocates as a transformative development. But closer scrutiny of these localisation efforts may reveal something different. This article draws on theories of feminist institutionalism to examine the formal and informal institutional interplays which have shaped the Regional Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security that was formalised by the Pacific Islands Forum in 2012. My analysis shows that although the Regional Action Plan is a significant development in rhetorical terms for the Pacific region, and may lay the foundation for future policy progress on gender and security, its focus is also constrained. This becomes particularly evident when the Regional Action Plan’s emphasis on women’s peacebuilding is compared with the plan’s relative silence on the growing regional challenge of gender and environmental insecurity. To explain these developments I show how the plan sits in interesting, and unresolved, tension with existing institutional norms and practices which gender the ‘architecture of entitlements’ governing how Pacific Island women can legitimately enter debate on regional security.
AdgerW NeilKellyP Mick (1999) Social Vulnerability to Climate Change and the Architecture of Entitlements. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change4(3–4): 253-266.
2.
AlstonMargaret (2013) Gender and Climate Change in Australia and the Pacific. In stonMargaret AlWhittenburyKerri (eds). Research, Action and Policy: Addressing the Gendered Impacts of Climate Change. Netherlands: Springer, 175–188
3.
de AlwisMalathiMertusJulieSajjadTazreena (2013) Women and Peace Processes. In CohnCarol (ed). Women and Wars. Polity: Cambridge, 169-193.
4.
Arora-JonssonSeema (2011) Virtue and Vulnerability: Discourses on women, gender and climate change. Global Environmental Change21: 744–751.
5.
BarnettJon (2000) Destabilising the environment-conflict thesis. Review of International Studies. 26(2): 271-288.
6.
BarnettJonCampbellJohn (2010) Climate Change and Small Island States: Power, Knowledge and the South Pacific. London: Earthscan.
7.
Bhagwan-RollsSharon (2012) Pacific Regional Perspectives on Women and the Media: Making the connection with UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (Women, Peace and Security) and Section J of the Beijing Platform for Action. SIGNS36(3): 570-577.
ChappellLouise (2011) Nested Newness and Institutional Innovation: Expanding gender justice in the International Criminal Court. In KrookMona LenaMackayFiona (eds.) Gender, Politics and Institutions: Towards a Feminist Institutionalism. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 163–180.
10.
CohnCarolJacobsonRuth (2013) Women and Political Activism in the Face of War and Militarization. In CohnCarol (ed.) Women and Wars. Cambridge, Polity, 102-123.
11.
DetrazNicole (2009) Environmental Security and Gender: Necessary shifts in an evolving debate, Security Studies18(2): 345–369.
12.
DouglasBronwen (2002) Christian Citizens: Woman and negotiations of modernity in Vanuatu. The Contemporary Pacific14(1): 1–38.
13.
FarbotkoCarolLazrusHeather (2012) The First Climate Change Refugees? Contesting Global Narratives of Climate Change in Tuvalu. Global Environmental Change22: 382–390.
14.
FarbotkoCarol (2010) Wishful Sinking: Disappearing islands, climate refugees and cosmopolitan experimentation. Asia Pacific Viewpoint51 (1): 47–60.
15.
FemLINKPACIFIC (2002) Mothers in Dialogue. Suva: FemLINKPACIFIC Video Production.
FirthStewart (2001) A Reflection on South Pacific Regional Security, mid-2000 to mid- 2001. The Journal of Pacific History36(3): 277–283.
18.
FreidenvallLenitaKrookMona Lena (2011) Discursive Strategies for Institutional Reform: Gender quotas in Sweden and France. In KrookMona LenaMackayFiona (eds) Gender, Politics and Institutions: Towards a Feminist Institutionalism. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 42–57.
19.
FryGreg (2005) ‘Pooled Regional Governance’ in the Island Pacific: Lessons From History. In ChandSatish (ed.) Pacific Islands Regional Integration and Governance. Canberra, Asia Pacific Press, 89-103.
20.
FryGreg (2015a) Recapturing the Spirit of 1971: Towards a new regional political settlement in the Pacific. SSGM Discussion Paper3.
FryGreg (1981) Regionalism and International Politics of the South Pacific. Pacific Affairs54(3): 455–484.
23.
GeorgeNicole (2015) Starting With a Prayer: Women, faith and security in Fiji. Oceania, 85(1): 119–131.
24.
GeorgeNicole (2014) Promoting Women Peace and Security in the Pacific Islands: Hot conflict/ slow violence. Australian Journal of International Affairs67(3): 314–332.
25.
GeorgeNicole (2012) Situating Women: Gender Politics and Circumstance in Fiji. ANU Press, Canberra2012.
26.
GeorgeNicole (2010) ‘Just Like Your Mother?’ The politics of feminism and maternity in the Pacific Islands, The Australian Feminist Law Journal, 32 (June): 77–96.
27.
HermkensAnna Karina (2011) Mary, Motherhood and Nation: Religion and gender ideology in Bougainville’s Secessionist warfare. Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific25, available at http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue25/hermkens.htm.
28.
KennyMeryl (2011) Gender and Institutions of Political Recruitment: Candidate selection in post-devolution Scotland. In KrookMona LenaMackayFiona (eds) Gender, Politics and Institutions: Towards a Feminist Institutionalism. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 21–41.
29.
KrookMona LenaMackayFiona (eds) (2011) Gender, Politics and Institutions: Towards a Feminist Institutionalism. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
30.
LaneRuthMcNaughtRebecca (2009) Building Gendered Approaches to Adaptation in the Pacific. Gender & Development17(1): 67–80.
31.
LowndesVivienRobertsMark (2013) Why Institutions Matter: The New Institutions in Political Science. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
32.
MackayFiona (2014) Remembering the Old, Forgetting the New: ‘Nested newness’ and the limits of gendered institutional change. Politics and Gender10(4): 459–471.
33.
MackayFiona (2011) Conclusion: Towards a feminist institutionalism. In KrookMona LenaMackayFiona (eds) Gender, Politics and Institutions: Towards a Feminist Institutionalism. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 181–196.
34.
MahoneyJamesThelenKathleen (2010) Explaining Institutional Change: Ambiguity, Agency, Power. New York: Cambridge University Press.
35.
MarchJames GOlsenJohan P (1989) Rediscovering Institutions. New York: Free Press.
36.
MonsonRebecca (2013) Vernacularizing Political Participation: Strategies of women peacebuilders in Solomon Islands. Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific33 (Dec), available at http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue33/monson.htm.
TarteSandra (2014) Regionalism and the Changing Regional Order in the Pacific Islands. Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies1(2): 312–324.
48.
TerryGeraldine (2009) No Climate Justice without Gender Justice: An overview of the issues. Gender & Development17(1): 5–18.
49.
ThelenKathleen (2004) How Institutions Evolve: The Political Economy of Skills in Germany, Britain, the United States and Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge: Unversity Press.
WestendorfJasmine-Kim (2013) ‘Add Women and Stir’: The regional assistance mission to Solomon Islands and Australia’s implementation of United Nations Security Resolution 1325. Australian Journal of International Affairs67(4): 456–474.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
