Gender, Peace and Powersharing Practices in Political Transitions

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • McCulloch, Allison
  • Byrne, Siobhan

• SSHRC Awarded IG 2014: In Afghanistan and Syria (2013), powersharing peace-deal processes, modelled on examples from the Northern Ireland and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Powersharing experts argue ethnopolitical groups are the most important actors in contemporary conflicts like Afghanistan and Syria, often to the exclusion of all other social identities and locations, while 'women, peace and security' scholars and other critics of powersharing theory argue powersharing is inherently exclusionary. Our research question is: can powersharing theory, which focuses exclusively on ethnopolitical groups, be revised to accommodate the 'women, peace, and security' agenda? Drawing on the lessons of the Dayton Accords in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1995 and the Belfast Peace Agreement in Northern Ireland in 1998, we assert that the exclusion of women is not a result of powersharing per se, but rather stems from a failure to integrate a gender perspective into powersharing theory and practice. Our project's central purpose is to provide a theory of gender-inclusive powersharing and to demonstrate how it can inform conflict resolution processes in two contemporary cases of conflict: Afghanistan and Syria. This requires significant theoretical revision to the power-sharing model and necessitates building opportunities for scholars from both streams to share knowledge. Our four-year research plan is centered on two objectives: developing opportunities for practitioner-academic engagements to advance scholarship and creating a gendered theory of power-sharing. We will employ a qualitative multi-methods approach, including in-depth semi-structured interviews with politicians, advocacy groups, and UN staff; gender analysis of comprehensive peace accords, UN Security Council Resolutions, and other key peace documents, and; comparative case studies (Syria, Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Northern Ireland). This research will benefit not only scholars and practitioners but also the women, men, and children who live in conflict and post-conflict zones.

• Date created

  2013-10-10

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Sociology
  • Women and Peace
  • Gender
  • Security Council
  • Theory
  • Syria
  • Northern Ireland
  • Post Conflict
  • International relations
  • Sshrc grants
  • Interdisciplinary Studies
  • Government
  • Peace Building
  • 1990-2013
  • Negotiation
  • Successful SSHRC
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Peace
  • Insight Grant
  • Powersharing
  • 2014
  • United Nations
  • Ethnonational Conflict
  • Bosnia
  • Politics
  • Political Science
  • International Relations
  • Afghanistan
  • Herzegovina
  • IG
  • Resolution 1325
  • 1990 - 2013
  • SYRIA
  • BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA
  • NORTHERN IRELAND
  • AFGHANISTAN

• Type of Item

  Research Material

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R33T9DH62

• License

  © McCulloch, Allison. All rights reserved other than by permission. This document embargoed to those without UAlberta CCID until 2022.