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Regional Conference: Non – Traditional Security Discourse: Gender and South Asia Building
further on its commitment to broaden the discourse on security by foregrounding
the principles of inclusivity and diversity, WISCOMP organizes periodic
discussions, the most recent being a regional conference on the theme Non-Traditional Security Discourse: Gender and South Asia. Bringing
together scholars, researchers and practitioners from a wide range of
disciplines including International Relations, Political Science, Sociology,
History and Gender Studies, the conference provided a context to interrogate the
existing security discourse, particularly the apparent binaries of the
“traditional” and “non-traditional” formulations on security, and to
look at the possibilities for evolving a shared vocabulary through which the so
called "non-traditional" security issues in South Asia could be
cognized and located. The
non-traditional variables of security are now recognized as impacting both
inter- and intra-state security beyond what the cold war discourse cognized or
envisaged. The globalized environment of the post-cold war period has thrown up
new challenges, threats, new actors and indeed new concerns that decisively
change the contours of ‘security’. The outlines of the non-traditional
security discourse still seem to be emerging and there appears to be little
consensus and considerable ambiguity on what constitutes its domain. In
this context, the conference sought to visualize the possible directions, which
the currently fledgling discourse might take, examine some of the critical
tensions within it, and dialogue on how the discourse can become inclusive and
relevant while at the same time remain focused, cogent, and coherent. Informed
by WISCOMP’s ongoing efforts to encourage multi-disciplinary dialogue on the
question of how gender and non-traditional security concerns intersect in a
South Asian setting, the conference provided points of entry for gender
perspectives to be reflected in peace initiatives and processes of post-conflict
reconstruction in South Asia. The leitmotif of gender wove together the diverse
presentations on non-traditional security. The different kinds of research
questions that emerge when non-traditional security issues at looked at through
the gender lens, and the major challenges that the theorist and practitioner
confront in their efforts to foreground gender in the security discourse were
discussed at length. An
important focus of dialogue was the mapping of intersections between traditional
and non-traditional security concerns, particularly how the two can be
harmonized and a correlation established between the individual and the state.
Such a focus is currently missing from the security studies agenda in South Asia
where traditional and non-traditional security concerns are boxed into separate
compartments in spite of the opportunities that exist to synergize the two. The gendered dimensions of transnational flows, terrorism, small arms, drugs and human trafficking raise important questions that significantly inform any discussion on non-traditional formulations of security. The WISCOMP regional conference took cognizance of the manner in which terrorism, small arms, drug and human trafficking have entered the security lexicon as variables that straddle both the domains of what is regarded as traditional and non-traditional security concerns. The ways in which terrorism has reconfigured the traditional notions of conflict and war is particularly crucial in this context. An attempt was made to trace the different strands in the international discourse on terrorism, to evolve a South Asian perspective on terrorism, and to explore how gender mediates the debate particularly after September 11. Analyses
on non-traditional security concerns are also increasingly taking stock of
issues of life, livelihood and freedom from want and “new” sectors of
security are being redefined in a manner that cognizes non-military variables of
security. Crucial in this context are questions that look at the “feminization
of poverty”, the impact of globalization on the use of natural resources and
on women’s access to the commons, and how international agreements under the
World Trade Organization impact upon the arenas of women’s economic
participation. In this context, the conference specifically addressed questions
of food security, land rights and water security in South Asia. The regional conference brought to the fore a wide range of questions and opinions on the relevant disciplines within which an emerging field of Post-Cold War Security Studies could locate itself, its association with International Relations, the linkages between the development discourse, the rights discourse, and the security discourse, and the implication of factoring in gender into the discourse on security.
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Roundtable:Voices from Pakistan Symposium: Human Security in the New Millenium Research Project: Transcending Conflict: Gender and Non – Traditional Security Regional Conference: Non – Traditional Security Discourse: Gender and South Asia |
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