Shortlist: International Affairs Early Career Prize 2022
Joseph Hills
In 2017 the editorial team at International Affairs launched the Early Career Prize, designed to celebrate the quality of the research published in the journal by authors with less than seven years of experience in the field of International Relations post-PhD. After a rigorous selection process, we can now reveal the three articles which made our shortlist for the 2022 prize.
Why?
It has rarely been harder to launch a career in academia. Current demands placed on PhD students and post-doctoral researchers in terms of teaching, course administration, outreach, and, of course, research, have been well documented.
In light of this we believe it is important to celebrate outstanding research produced by early career researchers. While the seniority or otherwise of an author is not taken into account during the International Affairs editorial process, looking back at the high quality articles by early career academics has been such a rewarding exercise.
When will the winner be announced?
The winner will be announced during ISA’s 2022 Annual Convention at the end of March 2022. If you are attending ISA this year either in person or online then we would be delighted to see you there. Follow us on Twitter to find out the details.
The shortlist
The following articles have been shortlisted by members of our editorial board. They are listed in order of the issue in which they were published.
1) The nature of Women, Peace and Security: a Colombian perspective
Keina Yoshida, Lina M Céspedes-Báez
Abstract: On 12 November 2019, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), handed down a landmark decision in the case of ‘Katsa Su’ concerning the Awa indigenous group in Colombia. The Colombian conflict has particularly affected indigenous groups, such as the Awa people, and has also affected the territory in which they live. In this article, we explore the decision of the JEP, within a broader analysis of the Colombian peace agreement and consider how it might help us to think about the place of the environment in the Women, Peace and Security agenda and in international law. We call for a gendered and intersectional approach to environmental peacebuilding which is attentive to the importance of gender and different groups. Further, we highlight how the Colombian example shows how concepts such as relief, recovery and reparations are often confined in international law to women’s recovery and redress with respect to sexual violence and yet, this conceptualization should be much broader. The Katsa Su case provides an example of the fact that reparations and redress must address other forms of violence, spiritual and ecological, which women also suffer in times of conflict.
Read the full article here.
2) Backlash advocacy and NGO polarization over women’s rights in the United Nations
Jelena Cupać and Irem Ebetürk
Abstract: The article observes that women’s rights politics in the United Nations are caught in full-scale polarization between feminist and conservative non-governmental organizations (NGOs), particularly visible in their fights over institutional spaces and language. It then sets out to elucidate the process by which this polarization came about. It first ties it to specific reasons for which conservative NGOs entered the UN; namely, their intent to halt and reverse the progress of women’s rights. Next, the article observes that this intent has given birth to a specific style of conservative NGOs’ advocacy: backlash advocacy. This advocacy differs from regular advocacy in that it does not target only UN decision-makers, but also a rival NGO group and its normative record. Polarization results from feminist NGOs’ defensively reciprocating this attack. The article contributes to the literature on international organization (IO)–NGO relations by specifying why conservative NGOs, considered unlikely IO utilizers, end up actively using the UN and by showing that this diversification in NGOs’ utilization of the UN can have detrimental rather than positive institutional effects. The article also invites feminist NGOs to be more aware of the political dynamic that now entraps them, and to tailor their future strategies accordingly.
Read the full article here.
3) Somaliland’s authoritarian turn: oligarchic–corporate power and the political economy of de facto states
Claire Elder
Abstract: Somaliland’s endurance as Africa’s longest de facto state has for decades preoccupied scholarship on state formation and democratization. The prevailing democratic success narrative has, however, downplayed the complex internal political dynamics and crises that have characterized Somaliland’s independence since 1991. Relying on a number of robust resources, including 110 interviews and archival work conducted in Somaliland from 2015 until 2021, this article examines at close range Somaliland’s political economy and provides a more cautious assessment of Somaliland’s democratization trajectory. It argues that the political authority of cross-border oligarchic–corporate structures and the securitization of aid created an ‘oligopolistic state’ and ‘peaceocracy’ rather than a national, democratic government. This analysis highlights how de facto states struggle to balance political control and financial hardship generating creative and uneven governance structures. This study also raises important questions about how donors in the Gulf and in Asia provide new opportunities for recognition through Islamic finance and business that may affect de facto states’ commitments to democratization. Finally, it contributes to theorizing about the ideologies of privatized governance that emerge in peripheral and developing economies and the political consequences of perennial non-recognition.
Read the full article here.
