Japan's Womenomics Diplomacy: Fighting Stigma and Constructing ODA Leadership on Gender Equality

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 491-513
Author(s):  
LIV COLEMAN

AbstractUnder conservative Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, Japan has embarked upon a high profile ‘Womenomics’ foreign policy agenda to highlight Japan's official development assistance (ODA) contributions to women's empowerment worldwide. This paper examines the puzzle of why such an avowedly conservative government would pursue a feminist foreign policy agenda. The paper finds that Japan's Womenomics diplomacy cannot be explained simply by materialist or domestic political explanations, but is best understood as a strategic campaign stemming from elite concern about Japan's national identity and esteem about its status in the world. Through Womenomics diplomacy, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs attempts to construct Japan as a leader on women's rights and gender equality in response to the twin stigmas of Japan's treatment of wartime ‘comfort women’ and perennial low rankings on international indexes of gender equality.

Significance He has held high-profile posts since 2015, as minister for foreign affairs and then defence during Shinzo Abe's administration. He now oversees Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s signature ‘digitalisation’ campaign as minister for administrative reform. Last month, Suga made him ‘COVID-19 vaccine czar’, adding to his portfolio. Impacts Under Kono, the LDP would be taken in new directions after Suga’s continuity strategy. Kono is neo-liberal on social and economic policy and less of a cultural conservative than recent prime ministers. Despite his fluent English and contacts in Washington, Kono would tilt foreign policy in an Asia-centric direction.


Author(s):  
Daria Mikhailovna Pokrovskaia

The subject of this research is the practice of liberal internationalistic approach to foreign affairs, which form many decades is a defining factors in studying Canada’s foreign policy. The Canadian liberal internationalism emerged after the World War II, and the concept of its ideology received its development in the 1950’s being inextricably linked to the name of Lester Pearson. The object of this research is the views, ideas and main approaches of Lester Pearson, who held a post of Undersecretary of State and later Prime Minister of Canada, towards the formation of foreign policy of the country. Methodology contains the analysis of personal sources of Lester Pearson and his colleagues, public speeches, official documents of Canadian Department of Foreign Policy, as well as writings of the leading Russian and foreign scholars. The author highlights the key principles of the liberal internationalistic approach towards conducting Canada’s foreign policy, among which is the institutional approach, participation of Canada in world politics as a “medium superpower”, mediation in settlement of international disputes, peacekeeping activity and adherence to the ideas of collective security, etc. A detailed analysis is carried out on the personal views and techniques of conducting diplomacy of Lester Pearson that influences the development of the Canadian liberal internationalism.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Atnike Nova Sigiro

<p>This article was formulated based on interviews with 5 (five) trade union confederations from a number of confederations in Indonesia, namely: Konfederasi Serikat Pekerja Nasional (KSPN), Konfederasi Sarikat Buruh Muslimin Indonesia (KSarbumusi), Konfederasi Serikat Buruh Seluruh Indonesia (KSBSI), Konfederasi Serikat Pekerja Indonesia (KSPI), and Konfederasi Kongres Aliansi Serikat Buruh Indonesia (KKASBI). This article seeks to explore the efforts made by the trade union confederation in promoting gender equality - specifically in advancing the agenda for the prevention and elimination of sexual violence in the world of work. This article was compiled based on research with a qualitative approach, with data collection methods through interviews and literature studies. The results of this study found that the confederations interviewed had already set up internal structures that have specific functions on issues related to gender equality, gender-based violence, and women’s empowerment; although still limited and on ad-hoc basis. This research also finds that the role of the trade union confederation is particularly prominent in advocating policies related to sexual violence and gender-based violence in the world of work, such as advocating the Bill on the Elimination of Sexual Violence, and the ratification of the ILO Convention No. 190 on Violence and Harassment.</p>


Author(s):  
M. M. Dzera ◽  
R. Y. Pasichnyy ◽  
A. M. Ostapchuk

The place and international position of Lebanon in the world political arena today is changing and transforming under the influence of globalization. Thus, this is not deprive, but changes the vector on the international arena and does not exclude the already acquired conservative character. Prime Minister Tamam Salam, who is the executive of the President of the Republic of Lebanon, is reforming and liberalizing the law and changing the vector of foreign policy. He doing this without leaving the traditions and religious views, also without rejecting the conservative nature of foreign and domestic policies. Although Lebanon is part of the League of Arab States, which is accused of non-democracies, it has a democratic regime for a long time. Balancing the policy of the Lebanese Republic between conservatism, traditionalism, democracy and liberalization makes Lebanon a great country for analysis, since it provides an opportunity to reflect the coexistence of democracy with the stereotyped vision of the “Islamic world”.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Rogério de Souza Farias

Summary Policy planning has a long history in the Ministries of Foreign Affairs around the world. This article provides an overview of almost 70 years of this technique in Brazil’s Ministry of External Relations (Itamaraty). I will argue that there has been a clear trade-off between predicting, preaching, disrupting and managing. Despite its failures, planning has been an important tool for coping with uncertainty and has provided coherence in foreign policy-making.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-194
Author(s):  
Molly D. Siebert

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore research on the inclusion of women and discourses on gender in the social studies curriculum, with the goal of promoting gender equality.Design/methodology/approachTo gauge how issues on gender are being taken up in classrooms around the world, the process started by exploring Compare, Comparative Education, Comparative Education Review and International Journal of Educational Development. Initially, studies related to the social studies curriculum were examined. The research then expanded beyond the social sciences and these journals. The next level of research used a mixture of the key search terms “inclusion,” “gender discourse,” “women,” “gender equality” and “curriculum.” Studies conducted around the world were examined to broaden the understanding of global research on women and gender discourses in the curriculum.FindingsAlthough progress is evident, reform measures are necessary to ameliorate the inclusion of women and gender discourses in the curriculum. Implementing these strategies in social studies education may be effective steps to achieve gender equality: (1) consistently encourage students to critique power structures and systems of oppression; (2) include the exploration of gender fluidity, masculinity and the fluidity of masculinity in the curriculum; (3) examine intersectional identities such as race, gender and sexuality; and (4) utilize teacher education programs and professional development as key sites to help educators improve the amount of and approach to gender discourse in the classroom.Originality/valueAfter reviewing these studies, the combined findings offer potential steps to achieve gender equality.


Worldview ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 21 (10) ◽  
pp. 12-15
Author(s):  
Leo J. Wollemborg

After almost two years of the Carter administration the commitment to human rights, which represents a key aspect of its policies, has become a topic for much discussion and interest but seems still to be inadequately understood. The main reason for this failure, I feel, is that very few earnest efforts have been made to determine the actual scope and significance of the administration's approach as it emerges from the way it operates and from the way it developed out of the principles of freedom and morality that have inspired the best traditions and beliefs of the American people.Long before Mr. Carter announced his candidacy Richard N. Gardner, our present ambassador to Italy, had become one of his closest advisors on foreign affairs, with special regard to human rights. During recent conversations in Rome, Ambassador Gardner recalled that “an active commitment to the promotion of human rights everywhere in the world is not a novel feature in American foreign policy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 142-153
Author(s):  
Ingrid Ryberg

This article provides a critical discussion of the world-famous, much-celebrated gender equality work in the Swedish film industry. Since the Swedish Film Institute launched a program for gender equality in 2013, redesigned in 2016 as the action plan 50/50 by 2020, Sweden has been held up as a model country and the Film Institute’s CEO Anna Serner has held several widely publicized seminars in Cannes and elsewhere. This article aims to contextualize the Swedish case, as influential curators, jury chairs, and festival directors around the globe have signed the 50/50 by 2020 campaign with no evidence of its primary goal of dividing production support evenly between men and women by 2020 being within reach. I show that the notion of Sweden as an egalitarian haven obscures remaining injustices, norms, and, not least, the equality program’s lack of intersectional analysis. Unraveling “the myth of gender equality” in Swedish film, this essay shows how this myth operates in the context of Swedish foreign policy and self-promotion in the neoliberal present. As much as the current mobilization for change is worth applauding, I argue that it is crucial to critically examine actual measures and push for redistributive results beyond symbolic commitment, individual recognition, and positive publicity.


Significance The senior leadership seeks to defend its position within China, first and foremost by preserving and strengthening the power of the Party through which it rules. China’s growing wealth and power create new opportunities for the Party to bolster its power -- and give rise to new threats that could undermine it. Impacts China’s ambitions centre on itself; they do not involve remaking the world in China’s image. China’s interests converge with other states' on climate change and economic cooperation; disputes concern how gains and costs are shared. China’s pursuit of its self-interest may sometimes have positive spill-overs, such as when it shares innovations, freely or otherwise. Despite controversies and setbacks, the Belt and Road will provide infrastructure critical for economic development globally. Beijing, long a practitioner of commercial espionage, is becoming bolder in its use of cyber operations to pursue its foreign policy agenda.


1938 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 467-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert B. Stewart

The British Dominions prior to the World War had already achieved practically unrestricted freedom with respect to technical and commercial treaties. They had not attained any comparable freedom with respect to “political” treaties. They were, with rare exceptions, excluded from participation in the conclusion of such treaties but were, nevertheless, bound automatically by the obligations undertaken by the mother country. The Government of the United Kingdom, subject to its responsibility to the Imperial Parliament at Westminster, exercised sole authority in all matters relating to the conduct of foreign policy, the maintenance of peace, and the declaration of war. That authority, Prime Minister Asquith declared at the Imperial Conference of 1911, could not be shared with the Dominions. Yet at the close of the War the Dominions were given separate representation at the Paris Peace Conference.


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