Interrogating the “Local” in Women, Peace and Security: Reflections on Research on and in the UK and Iraq

The “local” plays an important yet ambiguous role in the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. In each of our PhD research projects, the term “local” came up frequently during our fieldwork: in readings, in interviews, and in policy and advocacy documents. The local is often used as a descriptor for both a place (the “everyday”) and a group of actors (the “local population”), which for WPS often refers to the constituency of “women and girls” located in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. However, the ambiguity that accompanies the numerous articulations of the term by different actors working on WPS in various settings has meant that we have both had trouble defining and locating the local in conceptual and practical terms across our respective case studies (the UK and Iraq). Although the designation clearly plays an important role in WPS, the local remains nebulous. This raises important questions regarding the discourse, policy, practice, and study of the agenda.

In this conversation, which is based on a series of email exchanges and Skype calls, we think through the concept of the local in WPS, and in relation to our respective case studies. We explore the wider implications of defining and locating the local for the construction of WPS policy and advocacy, as well as for WPS scholarship. We speak to our respective case studies and use them to offer insights into how WPS scholars and practitioners might better conceptualize and use the designation of the local in WPS. Through this conversation, we address a number of different issue areas and themes: the articulation of the local in the action plans of the UK and Iraq; the methodological and practical issues that arise from researching and producing knowledge about the local; contestation over who or what might constitute the local in WPS; and the power dynamics related to consultations with, and the wider involvement of, local actors for the purpose of producing more inclusive and equitable WPS policies and programs. We contend that for an agenda that seeks to impact and shape women’s lives as well as policy around international peace and security, understanding but also locating the local from a distinctly feminist, transnational, and postcolonial perspective seems vital if we are to move the agenda beyond the halls of power in United Nations (UN) buildings and national strategy documents.