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Can Women Stop War?
It’s not a rhetorical question. Last week, in front of a packed audience at Harvard’s JFK Jr. Forum, five women leaders from Afghanistan, Colombia, the Philippines, Rwanda, and Syria gathered onstage with Inclusive Security’s founder and chair, Ambassador Swanee Hunt, to demonstrate the answer. This was far from merely an intellectual exercise. These women—and the […]
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Options for an Inclusive Peace Process in Syria
In June 2012, over one year after revolution erupted in Syria, international actors agreed on a set of principles for a Syrian-led transition to peace and democracy, including that “[a]ll groups and segments of society…must be enabled to participate.” But 16 months after this agreement was reached in Geneva, how has it factored into planning […]
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Syrian Women Envision a Peaceful Future
Earlier this year, 31 Syrian women traveled to Turkey—from government-controlled cities and towns as well as from “liberated” areas—for a series of workshops to discuss their vision for the future. The diverse group included activists, civil society leaders, and public servants, all with a common purpose: realizing a peaceful, democratic Syria. Inclusive Security, in partnership […]
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Wafa Bugaighis Blazes New Trail for Women in Libya
In Libya’s national elections last July—the first time citizens voted for a representative government in 60 years—women won 17% of the seats. This unprecedented number was thanks in no small part to activists like Wafa Bugaighis, cofounder and chair of the Committee to Support Women’s Participation in Decision Making, who led campaigns to encourage women’s […]
Big Idea, Post, Press
What if Women Ruled the World?
“If women ruled the world, they would make sure that they weren’t ruling the world,” affirms Ambassador Swanee Hunt, Institute founder and chair, in an episode of the BBC series What If… with former White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers. Women leaders have a unique understanding of the needs of their communities that guides […]
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VIDEO: “I’m not afraid.” Alaa Murabit at the Women in the World Summit
Alaa Murabit was on the “Most Wanted” list of female activists during the revolution in her hometown of Zawia, Libya. Undeterred, she travels the world and her country demanding that Libyan women have a say in governing their new democracy. “This is not just women fighting for women. This is society fighting for society.” Alaa […]
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Video: Iraqi Network Member Zainab Al-Suwaij on MSNBC
Zainab Al-Suwaij, a Women Waging Peace Network member, reflects on conditions in Iraq ten years after the US-led invasion of her country on MSNBC’s Up With Chris Hayes. Al-Suwaij, who fled Iraq in 1991 and later became the co-founder and executive director of the American Islamic Congress, emphasizes that poor infrastructure and growing sectarianism in […]
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Harvard IOP Video: Swanee Hunt & Alaa Murabit
“To have a sustainable peace process, we can’t only bring the men with guns to the table; we must also have women.” So says Alaa Murabit, founder of Voice of Libyan Women, in this video for Harvard’s Institute of Politics. Murabit and Inclusive Security Founder and Chair Ambassador Swanee Hunt sat down before a panel […]
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Why We Need to Support Civil Society in Syria
This post is by Kristin Williams and Rebecca Miller. In a recent Foreign Policy article (“Holding Civil Society Workshops While Syria Burns”), author Justin Vela seems unconvinced by the worth of recent efforts to provide “nonlethal support” to the Syrian opposition. According to Vela, this training and communications assistance (led by the U.S. State Dept. […]
