'Gendering diplomacy and international negotiation', edited by Karin Aggestam and Ann E. Towns

Bringing together the contributions of well-established scholars specialised in international relations, the book presents cases ranging from Brazil, Japan, Turkey, Israel and Sweden to the United Nations, Russia, Norway and the European Union.

The book is structured in two parts: part one is entitled 'Gender in the Foreign Service' and part two is entitled 'Gender in International Negotiation'.

1. The first part comprises several articles dealing with gender and status hierarchies in ambassador postings, representation in US diplomacy, the Swedish ministry of foreign affairs, women and gender in Turkish diplomacy, Brazilian female diplomats, and women in Japan's ministry of foreign affairs.
2. The second part contains several articles dealing with the role of women in peace mediation and peace negotiations, gender and the failure to negotiate peace in Israel, gender balance in the committees of the Council of the EU, the case of UN Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, East-West negotiations and the quest for gender justice in diplomacy.

The book's contributors and editors attempt to address several points. First, they look at where women are located and positioned in contemporary diplomacy and international negotiation. They strive to identify the location of women with regard to status, tasks and contexts, as well as how these patterns may have changed over time. Second, they focus on the diplomatic infrastructure and try to determine to what extent diplomatic norms and negotiation practices are gendered. Their interest is in exploring the extent to which diplomatic culture contains gendered scripts and may pose structural barriers for female diplomats and negotiators. Third, they consider the extent to which the practice of diplomacy and international negotiation changes with a broader and more diverse group of diplomats. They argue that the fact that women have started working as diplomats in larger numbers in some countries has brought changes to diplomacy as an institution. 

The very last pages of the book highlight UN Security Council resolution 1325 on women and peace and security, and note that it triggered a number of international initiatives which have pushed for the appointment of more women to senior diplomatic positions. However, the book concludes that, despite major achievements in diplomacy and negotiation, overall global diplomatic representation remains rather low and the struggle for gender justice needs to continue. While it is clear that women are no longer told what Turkish diplomat Hüner Tuncer was once told by her uncle, that "there is only one profession on earth that women cannot do, and it is the diplomatic profession", there is nevertheless room for improvement if we want to create a framework that will really capitalise on the potential of women interested in following the challenging path of diplomacy and international negotiation.

Karin Aggestam is professor of political science and holds the Samuel Pufendorf Endowed Chair at Lund University. She is also a visiting research professor at Monash University and honorary professor at the University of Queensland, Australia.

Ann Towns is an associate professor in political science at the University of Gothenburg and a Wallenberg Academy Fellow. She is responsible for a large research project on gender norms, practices and hierarchies in diplomacy.

If you are interested in reading the book, it is available at the library so just drop in and take a look or borrow it!

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