 All right. Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to Pringle for our second session on post-conflict transitions. And welcome to our moderator, Dr. Scott Gardner. He is the Provost and Chief Academic Officer at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He previously held the position of Director of the Penn State School of International Affairs, where he remains a faculty affiliate. His research focuses on great power conflict, counter-terrorism, conflict mediation, policy assessment, and of course most relevant to us this morning, women, peace and security. So thank you so much for being here, Dr. Gardner. The floor is yours. So let's start out real quickly by creating a pyramid. So we start at the base as we should always in any conference presentation and panel and say, why do we care about the theme? Why do we care about women, peace and security? Why is it important? And I think the key answer is it contributes to the warfighting advantage and it contributes in a number of different ways. Right now the United States, particularly United States Navy where I'm employed, faces two pacing threats. The first is the PRC. The second is the United States labor market. At this point, none of the services have been able to meet their recruiting quotas across the board for enlisted or for officers. And there's a challenge in populating our military with the best and the brightest who are able to compete, particularly since, given the first pacing threat, we're smaller in terms of this population and we're smaller in terms of the military. So we need high quality committed people. Ruling out half of our population is a bad way to start. So if we can be more inclusive, figure out how to make women a bigger part of the military, that will dramatically have an impact on our ability to be an effective fighting force and contribute to the warrior advantage. The second reason is diversity, having different perspectives, different point of views, just like you want to have a diversified stock portfolio, you want to have a diversified staff, a diversified population that you're drawing from the diversified crew, so that people are approaching things of different perspectives, different ideas, and you're stronger as a result. The third is normative. It's a good idea. It's the right thing to do. Women, peace and security is the right idea. And it's not just the right idea, but allows contributes to the warrior advantage by leading through quality, leading through ideas. I would argue leading through leadership. So that's the floor of our pyramid. The answer to why women, peace and security is a contributes to the warrior advantage and why this panel on post conflict transitions. We all know as leaders, that key is hiring good people coming up with good ideas and follow through. And if you look at military situations, national security situations, post conflict transitions can be thought of as follow through. You can look at NATO coming out of World War Two. Korea, those are very successful stories, outcomes for the United States with very successful follow through. So the reason we're looking at post conflict transition is that if you win the war and lose the peace, you lost the war. And so the transition is critical to obtaining and executing the outcomes that you started the war with. And that's particularly the case for women, peace and security, which tends to be less visible, less important, which is why we're having viewed as less important, which is why we're having this conference trying to raise its importance. And needs to be more deliberately addressed. And so you have to think about how to deliberately address it in the post conflict transition. Then the third question in our pyramid is, well, why these folks that sitting next to me go introduce to you in a second. What makes them special to talk about post conflict transitions in a women, peace and security. Conference and the answer is they're both outstanding academics and incredibly experienced operationally experienced individuals. So they're going to blend their operational knowledge and their academic insights together, which I think is is kind of the secret sauce to creating really impactful observations. So we have three as I said outstanding experience folks we have Dr. Amanda Metcalf from the United States Air Academy. Professor Metcalf has also served as a practitioner for years and years, dealing with extensive cases of military trauma both individually and through policy, as well as addressing family issues throughout the United States military and especially the Air Force. We're going to hear from Mr. Joe Evans, who at Villanova University in the finishing up his doctorate in theology. And Mr. Evans is former Lieutenant Colonel in the Army has extensive experience in the United States and around the world, operationally and addressing the situations that we're talking about. So we're going to hear from Dr. Natalie Abu from the Military Academy of the Armed Forces the Republic of Moldova. In addition to perhaps claiming the I came the furthest for this conference award. She's an experienced and well regarded academic who also worked extensively in Moldovan policy groups setting Moldovan policy on 1325 and other critical issues. And I think we're in for an exciting panel. We only have 1313 three presentations. Many of them have four so we should have some time for some really good discussion so you all have homework I'd like to hear a good question from everybody. So, and with that, Amanda, if you believe us off please. All right, thank you Dr Gardner, I want to first say thanks to the Naval War College and Dr mean for inviting me here to talk about something I'm very very passionate about. And broadly, and you heard this from Dr Gardner, I study gender and leadership. And this really means going into countries and looking at strategies that create ethics of gender equality and in those regions. Today, however, I'm going to focus on two grassroots movements as an expression of leadership. And we'll draw peace insights from these two regions and those two movements. The two movements I'm going to cover is an immediate approach in Serbia, and a local governance approach in Rwanda. I chose these basic these regions because of the basic disruptions that they've incurred. I believe it's important to study post conflict zones because they impart important insight into peace. And it's particularly important to research those in the context of women's reactions and women's experiences. My aim is to examine the relationship between history conflict and social movement. Each of these movements has attempted and I would argue is doing a pretty good job at addressing some deep structural violence in the region. Okay, so I want to talk to you a little bit about the methodology and the kind of walk you through the thinking of this research. We all know and that's why we're here that women's empowerment is linked to peace. Okay, but a lot of what we know about that linkage relies upon macro data sets. So we've drawn from data sets like the World Economic Forum varieties of democracy of Oslo, some conflict data head of state data, and even some UN and human rights Commission data. So when I start looking at this in the countries I've gone to sometimes these big data sets tell a really confusing story. They don't always match up. So, when I go in and do this work I really want to come out with something that I can apply or we can apply as leaders. So in order to do so we have to ask questions about the history, how does history affect the leadership and the movement, and what's linked to the delivery of these leadership strategies. So what we come up with is grassroots movement in these grassroots movement piece, often operates in really unconventional ways, pretty nuanced ways. So to capture that, we have to ask micro level questions and so I use a micro sociological theory from Randall Collins to do my analysis. My methods are qualitative. I go in and conduct interviews for these two regions. 26 interviews 24 with women, and two with men, and the analysis is a focused analysis so I'm connecting history to the movement in that focused analysis. Okay, so let's start with Serbia. Serbia sits number 26 in the global gender gap data. Actually 23 United States is 26. So they're hovering in there with us in order to understand this movement we have to get a little glimpse of their history so after World War two Tito kind of took hold of Yugoslavia and Tito was considered an authoritarian leader, socialist leader. Some would say communist regime but by all accounts of the participants that I spoke with. He was pretty good for women's empowerment, and it was a peaceful time in Yugoslavia. So after the fall of Yugoslavia and Serbia Milosevic took over and it wasn't quite as peaceful. During that regime, the, there was a perpetration of a genocide in Bosnia, 12,000 women were raped, 8,000 civilians killed. Those are probably pretty conservative numbers actually. And by accounts of participants and the freedom house data. Serbia is currently in a democratic backsliding regime. So let's go to. Let's go to the strategies. Okay, so the first thing I found out is it's pretty dangerous to be a messenger in this movement. There, I'll refer you up to the first quote, this is one of the participants talked about being held hostage as a journalist. And I talked to some of the, the, the younger journalists and, and even some of the heads of states would say it's very dangerous to be a female journalist in this movement, twice as likely to be targeted with death threats, against a family, and certainly character Milase in reporting. Why is it so dangerous from from the reports when you're calling out gender based violence you're also calling out the regime and war crimes are wrapped into this call out. Okay, so moving to the actual media strategies. So I'm going to focus on the feminist media strategies. I mentioned that I'm going to talk about, but the efforts are really linked and wrapped into women's experiences so the second quote, a pie talks about the interviewing and the research of survivors and coming up with really basic guidelines and reporting on violence. Okay, so this is really important to remember. This was a coalition that started maybe eight years ago it started with nine female journalists and it's grown to 90 men and women who are committed to these guidelines. And they're involved with this coalition group pretty regularly on their own reporting of violence. And then some of the guidelines there's many guidelines but three that that stood out as a very important is the not reporting a victim identities. This implies guilt when you're reporting on violence. The use of graphic details and homicides or rapes or any sort of violent event. This produces victim blaming, and then the attention to visual cues in any sort of media reporting produces subordination or perspectives of subordination of women. The final theme was the transformative approach that this coalition is taking on. They're moving from what stories are being told to how those stories are told. They rely heavily on the survivor perspectives. And those perspectives do tie in gender based violence and experience through the genocide. The empathy is baked into this message and the narratives get people to value others more. Okay, so we'll move on to Rwanda's homegrown movement. A lot of people would say that, or ask questions about this being a feminist movement but my response is that this movement started after genocide where many women were left to clean up the pieces. Rwanda sits number six, as far as gender quality in the in the gap data, the world economic forum data. So the history of the history of Rwanda is also very important 1959 was the first round of Jenna genocidal attacks in the 1994 the big one 800,000 people killed and mass rapes were also wrapped wrapped into that the ethnic cleansing and Rwanda. The imperial powers in the 1980s began with the Germans, later the Belgians. So this is really key in 1935 the Belgians implemented a discriminatory identification system that instigated centralized power in Rwanda. The event in the 1980s the World Bank implemented a structural adjustment program that instigated the prioritization of privatization in Rwanda so you can imagine the two of those blended together can would produce some some tensions and conflict. One of the strategies homegrown solutions is what they call this. The first part of the solutions is the reliance on local knowledge and there's a lot of ways that Rwandans do this but I'll highlight the gacha process our, our provost spoke to this a little bit in the introduction of this symposium. The gacha is an ancient process wearing the community at a small level addresses perpetrators. Okay, and they rely heavily on truth and details of the truth. So often asking questions about who did you rape, who did you kill, how did you kill them and where are the people that grew some details, but that's important in producing remorse forgiveness, and then ultimately reintegration to the gacha process is moving away from international court systems to the tribal court systems, and by their accounts this worked fairly well. The other strategy is Rwandi identity. So they call this in boot to this is another word for unity, moving away from the identification from who to and to see or perpetrator and survivor to we are all just Rwandans. The last one is a trust in the community. Okay, and this one, it was, was pretty impressed, impressive to me and a couple things wrapped into this new Bukami is a word for 10 houses. So think back to that identification system that the Belgians implemented in 30s. This is really a process of decentralizing. So 10 houses is the opposite of the Belgians centralization efforts. It's a word for trusted judges. So, at a small level in the community, essentially these judges and panels of judges which now requires 30% of them being women after the genocide. There's care for those communities at a very local level. They work with these teams at 10 house levels to address economic issues, conflict issues, crime, environmental concerns, and resource distribution. So in this movement, these three strategies really acknowledge old approaches that were stripped away from Rwandans. And it lands upon a valued process and shared values that people believe civil liberties truly depend upon the takeaway from these two movements. The policy and principal implications are we really do need to ask questions that surround history. We need to ask questions that surround women. We need to address deep structures and I'll jump back to to what Valerie Hudson proclaims is very important how we treat our women is how we treat our state. That's really addressing deep structure. We need to explore strategies from the grass. And in doing so, we'll discover approaches that sway beliefs attitudes and ultimately change how people people value others. Thank you. So Nepal is a small South Asian country between India and China faces frequent major natural disasters and a decade long civil war that ended in 2006. These challenges are exacerbated by high rates of human trafficking, gender based violence, discriminatory social norms and poverty. Despite a growing consensus for the importance of women's involvement in the process for peace and security, gender discrimination continues to restrict the participation of women in Nepalese decision making processes. I look at how incorporating women peace and security or WPS into military security cooperation programs can be a source of mitigating these issues. I'll argue that incorporating WPS and the security cooperation is both necessary and feasible. Likewise, security cooperation like warfare should be planned and conducted with the ultimate objective of achieving peace and WPS can help. These programs can offer a strategic advantage as part of a multi track diplomacy process which corresponds to most peace building frameworks. I start with a brief examination of defense planning and contextual aspects of peace and conflict in Nepal, and then evaluate the contribution of WPS related security cooperation programs. This is part of a larger project that examines the benefits of collaboration between military security cooperation and religious peace building. But today I'll focus on the importance and benefits of WPS programs and security cooperation using Nepal as a case study. I base much of this on my experience as the chief of defense cooperation in Kathmandu from 2014 to 2017 and WPS initiatives that we implemented during that time. I'll also rely on insight from female peace building scholars as well as concepts of multi track diplomacy as an approach for peace as outlined by Ambassador John McDonald and Louise Diamond. The purpose of defense planning, whether for war or other purposes, including security cooperation should aim to establish a sustainable peace. As an infantry officer in Afghanistan and Iraq, I saw that this planning commonly fails to account for women who comprise over half the population and were generally the most affected by war. Arm conflict inflicts damage on vulnerable populations that have left untreated, confessed her and lead to sustained violence and instability. Women suffered disproportionately both during and after a war. This includes disruption to their family and social networks, amplification of existing gender inequalities and increased threat of trafficking and sexual exploitation, and the loss of basic rights like education and safety. Fortunately, numerous directives and guidance to reinforce the integration of WPS initiatives, starting with all those described throughout this symposium, the national action plans, executive orders and guidance from the combatant commands. Despite these incentives incentives, there's still likely to be some resistance. No matter the cultural or bureaucratic challenges, there are ways to navigate obstacles to implement these programs. Like many countries, Nepal is a space of great power competition between larger countries. In Nepal, however, the United States is a secondary figure to the influence of China and India. Despite the strategic competition between the US and China, India tends to be more antagonistic to US efforts in Nepal. Given that Nepal is unlikely to purchase expensive US military equipment as well as pressure from India on the Nepalese government to limit cooperation with others. And that the Nepalese military does not have a strategic external adversary that requires lethal efforts. US security cooperation is best suited to areas such as supporting Nepal's UN peacekeeping contribution, disaster response and WPS. Each of these lines of effort helps to promote peace at the global and local levels by seeking to reduce or mitigate the violence injustice and instability. Nepal experienced a 10 year civil war from 1996 to 2006, which not only disrupted the political stability and economic development, but resulted in numerous hardships and threats to the flourishing of women throughout the country. Both for combatants and non-combatants. In 2011, though, Nepal became the first South Asian country to adopt a national action plan. As a result, the government has attempted to increase the percentage of women in the security forces and established a ministry for women, children and social affairs in 2014. Despite these efforts, obstacles remain. For example, gender based violence and culturally entrenched gender discrimination persist. There are some encouraging trends such as a woman being named president of Nepal. Yet women continue to be sidelined from the influential voices in the post conflict peace processes, and fail to have a proportionate level of participation in government decision making. So WPS security cooperation programs can make a crucial contribution to promoting peace, while also offering a strategic benefit of regional stability. Despite the steps taken by the Nepalese by the Nepalese government and other directors and guidance. There were no WPS oriented programs in US security cooperation efforts in Nepal, aside from a few humanitarian assistance projects. In fact, of the thousands of US student training nominations from 20 to 2008 to 2014, only three were females. The US, excuse me, the US Office of Defense cooperation or the ODC in Nepal developed a plan to integrate WPS initiatives into its security cooperation programs in 2014. The primary areas of focus were UN peacekeeping operations, post conflict security sector development, humanitarian assistance projects, and a special emphasis on appropriate female nominations for US funded courses. Each program attempted to incorporate WPS objectives of participation, prevention and protection. Likewise, post conflict and disaster response efforts included WPS principles of relief and recovery. Some programs effectively addressed all areas of emphasis. For example, the ODC developed a girls mentorship program with an annual workshop for female students, capitalizing on the expertise of female graduates of ODC sponsored training. It was a common refrain from women who returned from training in the US was that they were thrilled with the opportunity experience and knowledge, but they get but that they gain but wish they had been exposed to it when they were younger. So the ODC, in collaboration with these female alumni plan to workshop to share these experience and knowledge with teenage Nepalese girls. The program included mentors from the government, army and civil society. The three day workshops which included hundreds of Nepalese teenage girls emphasize leadership skills to develop the knowledge and confidence to make a difference in their schools and communities. The workshops were successful and spawn numerous subsequent programs in the schools and communities of the participants. From a peace building perspective, these programs were invaluable for empowering young women leaders who can contribute to community and national level efforts, while simultaneously addressing aspects of injustice and instability in society, such as human trafficking, gender based violence and other discriminatory social practices. There's also a direct correlation into the framework of multi track diplomacy, especially in the areas of conflict resolution, grassroots involvement, education, activism and raising awareness. Military security cooperation is embedded in, excuse me, in this nine track conceptual and practical framework or a complex system of peacemaking activities. Women's participation and security and peace and security cooperation processes can promote enduring and innovative post conflict outcomes. Unfortunately, women in Nepal remain absent from many official and official and informal dialogue efforts. This was illustrated in 2015, when Nepal security cooperation sector development group argued that including women in their conflict transformation dialogue would be a distraction for the men. When confronted with this blatant misogyny, the subsequent argument was that there were just not enough qualified women in Nepal. While the WPS programs attempted to mitigate this lack, it highlights a specific gap in the important concept of including all stakeholders, especially women in the process of building peace. Collaboration between security cooperation and civic organizations can help identify gaps in areas of divergence to find an approach that is mutually beneficial. There is a risk as both NGOs and American military assistance can be viewed as far an intervention, but this danger can be mitigated by inviting local participants into the planning and oversight of the programs. Benefits include maximizing resources and momentum to normalize women in the peace process. One final aspect is to remember that sometimes our best intentions may cause unintended harm. For example, when linking security cooperation WPS programs with economic development projects, we must be aware of how the western pattern of development has over exploited natural resources becoming a process of development that subjects women to hardships and exploitation. Suspicion of security cooperation activities can occur at the local and national levels for a variety of reasons. Widespread mistrust can occur because of misperceptions about the intent of foreign programs, localized concerns can occur such as distrust from former combatants or communities who are concerned with outsider meddling. WPS programs can enhance trust at every level, although it can be difficult to navigate the impression that these programs disregard or contradict local cultural norms. In addition to helping build trust, a WPS program can help maintain strategic credibility. China and India do not advertise their events in Nepal, but have numerous programs for women leaders. The systematic approach of US women peace and security is simply one among an existing array of options, as Nepalese women are invited to conferences and courses related to women's leadership development in both India and China. Furthermore, WPS programs do not occur in a vacuum but within a larger context. Our partners are unlikely to differentiate between programs provided by the ODC or USAID or the Department of State. WPS programs can offer a strategic advantage, but they would need to be sustained and expanded to compete with established and better resource programs from other countries. Nepal faces cultural biases, political and social instability, a recent armed conflict, and frequent natural disasters that negatively impact the lives and livelihood of women. WPS programs can contribute to building a more peaceful and stable society, promote the dignity of the marginalized, and enhance trust and credibility at the local and national level by countering factors of suspicion while also helping to sustain influence amid competing international objectives. Thank you, Joe. Next we're going to hear from Dr. Natalia Abu on WPS National Action Implementation in Moldova. Hello to everybody. Thank you very much for invitation. And I'm delighted to be here and to present very sensitive issues regarding WPS implementation in Republic of Moldova. And it's very good to be the last because it's not enough eight minutes. It's very difficult to present so complex and complicated issues in eight minutes. And in order to keep the time I will try to emphasize through three main points. First of all, it's very important to understand the context of Elaboration of National Election Plan on Women, Peace and Security, a special security environment of Republic of Moldova. Also why NEP was adopted because it's not sufficient to be mandatory. And also we have less learned and good practices. In this context it's very important to highlight that recently in the March the government of Moldova approved the second generation of National Election Plan. But it was elaborated in a different security environment compared to the period when the first program was adopted. In fact, the geopolitical situation of the country influences its security policies, neighboring Romania and NATO member country and Ukraine invaded by Russian Federation Moldova is a part of extended Black Sea region. And in June 2022 Moldova obtained the status of EU candidate country. More than this, for Moldova, vulnerabilities, challenges and threats to national security are interconnected, both internally and externally, have a complication for human security as well. Especially the issues of respect of human rights on the territory of the country which is controlled by the separatist regime is also frozen conflict, Transnistria conflict, but the negotiation process is frozen. And it is a non-solved conflict artificial created by, managed by the Russian Federation. Thus, Moldova is a neutral state but it's not recognized internationally and the Russian violation violated its neutrality because we have Russian troops on non-controlled territory. But it's peace. Secondly, it's very important to understand why Republic of Moldova adopted and implement now a national election plan on women, peace and security because at the policy level Moldova has been assumed the responsibility to take action to implement the in the framework of the individual partnership action plan Republic of Moldova and NATO. It's very important to have this push at the external level and to have this international commitment. In general, at that stage the legal framework for ensuring gender equality in Moldova was already developed and functional. Plus, at the regional level and global, there are a lot of study that provided a different argument why you need to implement women, peace and security in the context of peace and conflict. At the national level research was also carried out. It was useful to have this kind of approach regarding the different security needs was very helpful for Republic of Moldova and special when you have to ensure a human security not only in peacekeeping mission but also at the national level. But also the results of the survey of on the perception on women in security sector. According to survey, it still exists the retides above the role of men and women in military because they think that the sector it's very dangerous for women. But in the institution related to public order citizen are more friendly for gender equality, because we believe that more women in the security sector will bring additional value to it. The most obvious benefits are related to fighting corruption, but according second nap, because we now have a second name, it seemed that they were in Ukraine. Change perception the role of women in peace and conflict because now we have on our territory, refugee, and 87% from the refugee are women and children. In this is regarding this aspect as well as barriers identify regarding the provision of an inclusive security framework influence the structure of the plan. I would like to highlight but during my presentation, I'm going, I'm focusing on the process known on barriers, but barrier it's very important issue. Yesterday we discussed about that. The first nap was primarily focused on women's participation in the security and defense sector using the free basic approaches, reducing stereotypes. Second, developing an inclusive and proactive human resources management system. And to create this cooperation with civil society it to end to strength and transparency regarding the action of from the implementing of resolution 3025. Regarding the second map, it's focused more on prevention because now we understand it's not a time for reaction it's important to have this prevention. Since the Republic of Moldova is a country with your candidate status with an active war at the border, and it is essential to have this kind of perspective on human rights, as well as the fight against any type of abuse and discrimination to ensure peace and security. And thirdly, regarding lesson learned and good practices. A well-written net doesn't mean good implementation. I think it's very reasonable for all country. In fact, the process of implementation of 3025 is often approached as an upfield battle that will involve substantial resistance and yesterday we spoke about that. Or unforeseen situation can arise such as a pandemic because pandemic was very good excuses to not implement women, peace and security activities. And not budgeting because only 27 countries that implement 27% of country that implement women, peace and security plans have budgeting for this. Actual estates are different. Respectively, the gender issues is taken differently. And there is a not homogenous set of policies tools for implementing the UPS agenda. However, it is recommended to organize priority intervention according to the four pillars, pillars that usually stress the state. And for example, it was difficult to integrate reliving recovery in the first national action plan because the leadership used to say, Dr. Albu, we don't have a problem with refugee. But due to misunderstanding of this approach, the need for relevant action on these issues was realized when the war in Ukraine has been started. That's why it's a good advice for the country as Republic of Moldova to have this approach, not only through four pillars, but to structure at a free level, strategical, operational and tactical. When we speak about good practices, it's very important to emphasize that a specific element for Republic of Moldova was the elaboration of the ministerial action plan depending on the institutional need and different capacity at the internal level and external level, because it's complicated to increase women participation security and defense sector if you don't have a special regulation regarding harassment discrimination. And it's very important to have this mainstreaming approach of gender and the security and defense sector. For example, we integrated in the national defense strategy, the gender aspect of the chapter of human resources. And also it's very important to implement at the external level because we have understand that security for whom or for who, for citizen, for population, and if you have a sufficient security institution or culture during your daily activities, it is important to integrate these issues and to ensure inclusive security. For example, Republic of Moldova adopted during the implementation of national action plan strategy on domestic violence. But also it's very important, not last at the least, to have this critical piece of leadership, especially if they are commitment from the male leaders. And if you have advice, advocacy at the high level of leadership, it's very successful implementation of national action plan. Here you can see that during the, when our deputy prime minister of reintegration, Mr Balan was ahead. He helped us a lot to push and to adopt the national action plan, because it was very difficult to convince leadership that we need to this kind plan but male leadership help us a lot. In this context, the implementation of women, peace and security agenda suppose that gender sensitive policy and practices should be considered as a precondition for responding to challenges and will became a reflex for decision makers involved in ensuring security. And yesterday we discussed, and Dr. Sirai Amin mentioned it, how it is important to implement at the national level women, peace and security agenda to ensure prosperity. And then at the international level there are indicators that show that the top country from the indicator good governance, they are at the top of women, peace and security index, and also the 10 countries on this top are in the top on the human security indicator. Thank you very much for your passion. Thank you Dr album. So I'm looking out at an audience filled with filled with leaders. Right, we've got ambassadors, we've got senior military officers, we've got faculty members from multiple military and civilian schools. We've got students. We have people who are committed to this issue. So leaders, I welcome your feedback on behalf of our panelists.