Women, Peace, Security, & Development Bibliography

Background

At a meeting in December 2010 at the U.S. Department of State, Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-large for Global Women’s Issues, asked for assistance from the group in delivering “evidence” to provide a rationale for a U.S. National Action Plan. At the meeting, Barbara Miller, former director of GGP (now known as GEIA) raised her hand and offered to help. The Bibliography is one step in delivering on that commitment.

UNSCR 1325 affirms the critical importance of women’s equal participation and full involvement in all efforts to maintain and promote global and local peace and security. Two subsequent resolutions, UNSCR 1820 and UNSCR 1888, call on the international community to address the issue of widespread sexual violence in conflict. As of September 1, 2012, twelve years since the adoption of UNSCR 1325 in October 2000, 38 countries have created a NAP to facilitate the implementation of UNSCR 1325’s tenets. In addition, several organizations have developed their own NAPs; this includes the European Union (EU), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the United Nations (UN).

On December 19, 2011, the United States adopted its NAP. Preceding that achievement, many town hall meetings across the country were held. In Washington, DC, a civil society group comprising representatives of many activist and policy organizations dedicated to women’s rights played a strong role in making recommendations to the U.S. government units developing the NAP. Over many months in 2011 and 2012, discussions in Washington, DC, continued to focus on “evidence” needed to support the underlying rationale of a U.S. NAP, specifically a rationale related to U.S. national security.

The stated need for “evidence” about the importance of including women in all aspects of peace, security, and development inspired this Bibliography. It was one of the first endeavors of GW’s Global Gender Program, now known as the Gender Equality Initiative in International Affairs (GEIA). It is part of GEIA’s ongoing efforts to bring together and assess “what we know” about the benefits of including women in all aspects of peace, security, and development, as well as the costs of not doing so. The 1325 Bibliography, as we have nicknamed it, demonstrates the breadth of scholarship, policy and advocacy writing, and applied work that has been done on topics related to UNSCR 1325. As of September 1, 2012, the 1325 Bibliography includes nearly 2,000 sources, providing a useful research tool for scholars and practitioners.

How to Use the Bibliography

The UNSCR 1325 Bibliography offers users a resource that is both comprehensive and focused. In comparison to a Google Scholar search, it is more comprehensive. The Bibliography includes books, book chapters, journal articles, professional reports, and more. It provides options for focused searching through our nine themes, each of which is assigned to a separate folder. The themes are:

• Education
• GBV
• Health
• Micro-finance
• NAP
• Peacekeeping
• Political Participation
• Primary Docs/Resolutions
• Miscellaneous

Each entry has at least two descriptors that include details about the document. Examples of descriptors include country names, issues, event, and time periods. Items that are available through the Internet have the descriptor “open access” (OA), while sources that need to be purchased through the publisher or found through other resources are “not open access” (NOTOA). The 1325 Bibliography also features a tool that allows you to search a mass library database, if the item you would like is not open access, to see if a resource is near you.

Cautionary Notes:

• Many sources in the 1325 Bibliography are not open-access.
• The 1325 Bibliography does not include newspaper articles, blog posts, and other media sources.
• The 1325 Bibliography is currently limited to English-language sources.
• Gaps in coverage exist, for example, unpublished conference papers, theses, and dissertations.

Acknowledgements

This 1325 Bibliography is the product of nearly two years of work on the part of several student assistants. Starting in fall 2011, Ashley Dennee, an undergraduate student in GW’s Elliott School, assumed primary responsibility for building and organizing the Bibliography, on a part-time basis. Through the summer of 2012, she worked tirelessly to enhance the Bibliography before leaving for graduate studies in London in fall 2012. Ashley led the effort of collating several specialized bibliographies into our single, large Bibliography, checking references, adding sources, and providing notations.

During the summer of 2012, Mackenzie Becker, a GW undergraduate majoring in Anthropology and Women’s Studies, ably assisted Ashley with adding sources and descriptors and helping move the Bibliography to its public debut.

Several other GEIA faculty, staff, and student members have played important contributing roles to building the Bibliography over the past few years. They are presented here in alphabetical order: Delaney Allen, Katie Appel, Andrea Bertone, Joanna Brucker, Erica Buckingham, Caitlin Cumming, Nadia Connelly, Matt LeDuc, Casey McHugh, Caitlin Nordehn, Cait O’Donnell, Milad Pournik, Caroline Spangler, and Katy Stewart. GEIA sincerely thanks all those involved for making this Bibliography a reality, as well as those specifically on the GEIA team who have ensured it is maintained, updated and continually improved.