2024.12.5 IGS International Workshop “Gender and Geopolitical Struggle in the Asia-Pacific”
The first presenter, Cai Yiping, noted that China’s global influence has expanded in recent years, along with its commitment to gender equality and women’s development. However, the gender aspect has not received sufficient attention. To fill this knowledge gap, DAWN has conducted a research project analyzing the gender impact of China’s engagement with the Global South since 2022. The presentation identified three key features of China’s approach to gender in its global engagement. In official discourse, women are categorized as part of a vulnerable group, while their potential and agency are paradoxically acknowledged. Additionally, there is tension between non-conditionality and extraterritorial obligations in South-South cooperation, and a gap between rhetoric and reality in Chinese international initiatives. DAWN’s research found mixed results regarding the gendered impacts of China’s engagement in the Global South. While some projects have benefited women, it remains questionable whether this trickle-down approach will result in transformative change. The research suggests that achieving gender equality should be integrated into national agendas, rather than being treated as a conditionality. Therefore, reimagining South-South relationships and creating a meaningful transnational feminist agenda through solidarity and dialogue will be key in the future.
The second presenter, Hisako Motoyama, discussed Japan’s growing military power, driven by the need to protect regional order based on “universal values,” in the face of threats from authoritarian states such as China. In this context, gender equality has increasingly been mainstreamed in national security strategy. Motoyama provided an overview of Japan’s post-Cold War national security reforms, from the 1991 Gulf War to the second Abe administration in the 2010s. Over this period, Japan expanded its role in maintaining the international order, based on “universal values” for its own security and economic growth, while emphasizing “gender” depending on the situation. Current Japanese geopolitical strategy has evolved with the escalation of tensions following the 2022 Ukraine invasion. The Kishida administration has vigorously promoted military expansion, and since 2017, the “Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP)” initiative has been promoted. However, upholding “universal values” alongside increasing military power risks exacerbating human rights violations. To build alternative feminist practices and knowledge, Motoyama emphasized the importance of engaging in policy dialogue and scrutinizing budget reallocations and social distribution from a feminist political economy perspective, linking feminist analysis with Asia and the Global South.
The discussant, Kozue Akibayashi, introduced the International Women’s Network Against Militarism (IWNAM) and the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict Northeast Asia Process (GPPAC NEA) as examples of peace movements among transnational feminists. Questions were then asked of Yiping about the possibility of building a dialogue between feminists and civil society in Northeast Asia, and of Motoyama about the prospects for developing a regional plan for the WPS. Additionally, participants inquired about the challenges of change in China today and how to foster feminist dialogue despite the differing positions of Japan and China. The workshop closed with a reaffirmation of the importance of re-energizing dialogue and forming a new framework that combines both geopolitics and feminist political economy.
Takahashi Mami (Ph.D. student at Ochanomizu University)
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