EDMUND A. WALSH SCHOOL OF FOREIGN SERVICEGEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security

“The way the international community tries to build peace and security today just isn’t getting the job done...more than half of all peace agreements fail within five years. At the same time, women are too often excluded from both the negotiations that make peace and the institutions that maintain it...too few [women] are empowered to be instruments

of peace and security.”

— Hillary Rodham Clinton, GIWPS Honorary Founding Chair

The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) is setting a course for a more stable, peaceful and just world. The Institute seeks to examine and highlight wom-en’s participation in peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding in order to strengthen conflict prevention and resolution initiatives; mitigate humanitarian emergencies; foster democratic political transitions; and enhance post-conflict economic development.

Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced GIWPS at Georgetown on December 19, 2011 when the Secretary unveiled the historic United States National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. In her speech, the Secretary said that the Institute “will help us elevate public understanding of this important matter. It will be a home for the primary source material such as oral histories and quality analysis that will help activists and leaders as well.”

A University-wide endeavor, GIWPS is housed at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS) and guided by the President’s Office. The inaugural executive director of the Institute is Melanne Verveer (I’66, G’69), who previously served as U.S. Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues. GIWPS complements and draws on the work of other Georgetown University

entities and engages partner organizations from the international diplomatic, development and defense community to spotlight some of the most critical issues of our time and innovate solutions together.

At the broadest level, the Institute is a continuation of the mandate articulated in UN Security Council Resolution 1325, adopted in 2000, which reaffirmed “the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and in peace-building.” GIWPS provides essential analysis, expertise and leadership on some of the most challenging peace and security problems.

Some of the Institute’s innovative programs include:

RESEARCHOriginal research: The Institute collaborates with external partners to support scholarly work — at Georgetown and around the world — to investigate and report on the most urgent questions related to women’s roles in peace and security. We are committed to building an evidence base of policy-oriented research. There is also a faculty research fund to support Georgetown faculty members and current students can pursue research assistantships at the Institute or summer research fellowships.

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The Hillary Clinton fellows: A new cadre of recent graduate researchers will have a year-long fellowship opportunity to further new research, conduct field work, and advance their professional development.

Research repository: Launched in the fall of 2012, the GIWPS online research repository is growing to become a ‘go-to’ research hub for scholars, policymakers and practitioners. It is populated with more than 800 items, including reports by governmental and non-governmental organizations, journal articles, oral narratives and documents of international law.

Oral histories: The Profiles in Peace oral histo-ries project is a multimedia effort to capture best practices, lessons-learned and effective strategies through video interviews with leaders making significant progress on the nexus of women, peace and security, including very prominent individuals, such as President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and UN Special Envoy Mary Robinson as well as lesser-known leaders, such as Dr. Denis Mukwege, who are on the frontlines of change.

CONVENING & CONNECTINGMinisterial Series: The Institute is committed to facilitating invigorating and informative discussions with world leaders and providing Georgetown students opportunities to interact directly with influ-

ential policy-makers. The Ministerial Roundtable Series is one example of this commitment and has previously featured former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, UN Special Representative for Sexual Violence Zainab Bangura and other high-level international dignitaries.

Major convenings: The Institute is poised to lead international conversations on some of the most pressing issues in the field of women, peace and security, leveraging Georgetown’s strategic location in the nation’s capital and renowned reputation. Recent examples of major convenings include the “Advancing Afghan Women” conference, which featured U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Former Secretary Hillary Clinton, Former First Lady Laura Bush and the Norwegian Foreign Minister, as well as a presentation on women’s economic empower-ment through social business with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus.

The Hillary Clinton Awards: Central to the Institute’s mission is to honor today’s trailblazers and inspire the next generation of global leaders. The Hillary Clinton Award for Advancing Women in Peace and Security, which is presented annually, has honored Dr. Claudia Paz y Paz, the Attorney General of Guatemala, British Foreign Secretary William Hague and other notable individuals.

International consortium: The Institute is orga-nizing an international consortium on women, peace and security to connect research centers, university and knowledge hubs around the world that are working on issues related to women, peace and security to exchange ideas, build bridges and foster cooperation. As part of the consortium effort, the Institute hosts the annual Bridging Theory and Practice Symposium, which is an international gath-ering of top academics and expert practitioners.

To learn more, visit giwps.georgetown.edu and if you’d like to be receive the Institute’s monthly newsletter, WomenPeaceWire, please email giwps@georgetown.edu

The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS), founded in 1919, is a premier school of inter-

national affairs. At Georgetown University’s Washington, D.C. and Qatar campuses, SFS provides a rigorous education combining theory and practice and instills the values of service. For more information about SFS, visit sfs.georgetown.edu. Twitter @giwps

Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security301 Intercultural CenterWashington, DC 20057202-687-5696giwps.georgetown.edu

GIWPS – February 2014

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