The book examines how exercises of power and processes of security exercised in the Occupied Pa... more The book examines how exercises of power and processes of security exercised in the Occupied Palestinian Territories have formed Palestinian women as subjects.
To understand how women experience occupation, this book examines the various ways in which the occupation is directed at making Palestinian women into subjects of power. The work argues that the exercises of power are focused on controlling and disciplining women’s bodies. The objectives are to expose how the exclusions of women’s daily-lived experiences of conflict in the occupied Palestinian territories obscures how power operates, to demonstrate how the elements of Israeli security practices make women insecure, and to highlight how resistance to the occupation can be found embedded within daily life in the occupied territories. Ultimately, all of these themes can be related more broadly to how women might experience conflict and resist subjectification by exposing different ways that subjectifications result in insecurities and resistance to those insecurities. While the book is specific to women in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the exercises of power and enactments of resistance it exposes demonstrate how important it is to take seriously the feminist argument that ‘the personal is international, and the international is personal.’
This article contributes a different approach to discussions of resilience and resistance by argu... more This article contributes a different approach to discussions of resilience and resistance by arguing that within the current literature, there is too little attention to how communities may engage in their own resilience building without outside intervention or interference. Further, this article will argue that the literature which poses resilience as fundamentally different from resistance overlooks the ways in which resilience can be seen as a tactic of resistance through the lens of infrapolitics. The article uses the Palestinian example of sumud to illustrate these two points. Sumud is a tactic of resistance to the Israeli occupation that relies upon adaptation to the difficulties of life under occupation, staying in the territories despite hardship, and asserting Palestinian culture and identity in response to Zionist claims which posit Israelis as the sole legitimate inhabitants of the land. Sumud represents a “resilient resistance”—a tactic of resistance that relies on qualities of resilience such as getting by and adapting to shock. Thinking about sumud as a form of resilient resistance challenges the resilience literature to engage with a greater variety of forms of resilience.
National Action Plans (NAPs) have been hailed as the preferential mode of implementing United Nat... more National Action Plans (NAPs) have been hailed as the preferential mode of implementing United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 at a national level. In recent years, member states, especially post-conflict member states, have been heeding the calls of the United Nations to develop their own National Action Plans. However, there has been limited assessment of whether or not National Action Plans are beneficial to women in post-conflict states. Using evidence from field research in Liberia and Sierra Leone, this article argues that, despite the intent to increase national ownership of 1325 in post-conflict states, National Action Plans are ineffective at creating meaningful local ownership because they are driven by a bureaucratic approach to peacebuilding. Furthermore, implementation of National Action Plans in post-conflict states is hampered by a variety of factors, such as lack of capacity and lack of political will. Finally, we conclude that National Action Plans also do a disservice to the hard work and dedication of local women's organisations.
The book examines how exercises of power and processes of security exercised in the Occupied Pa... more The book examines how exercises of power and processes of security exercised in the Occupied Palestinian Territories have formed Palestinian women as subjects.
To understand how women experience occupation, this book examines the various ways in which the occupation is directed at making Palestinian women into subjects of power. The work argues that the exercises of power are focused on controlling and disciplining women’s bodies. The objectives are to expose how the exclusions of women’s daily-lived experiences of conflict in the occupied Palestinian territories obscures how power operates, to demonstrate how the elements of Israeli security practices make women insecure, and to highlight how resistance to the occupation can be found embedded within daily life in the occupied territories. Ultimately, all of these themes can be related more broadly to how women might experience conflict and resist subjectification by exposing different ways that subjectifications result in insecurities and resistance to those insecurities. While the book is specific to women in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the exercises of power and enactments of resistance it exposes demonstrate how important it is to take seriously the feminist argument that ‘the personal is international, and the international is personal.’
This article contributes a different approach to discussions of resilience and resistance by argu... more This article contributes a different approach to discussions of resilience and resistance by arguing that within the current literature, there is too little attention to how communities may engage in their own resilience building without outside intervention or interference. Further, this article will argue that the literature which poses resilience as fundamentally different from resistance overlooks the ways in which resilience can be seen as a tactic of resistance through the lens of infrapolitics. The article uses the Palestinian example of sumud to illustrate these two points. Sumud is a tactic of resistance to the Israeli occupation that relies upon adaptation to the difficulties of life under occupation, staying in the territories despite hardship, and asserting Palestinian culture and identity in response to Zionist claims which posit Israelis as the sole legitimate inhabitants of the land. Sumud represents a “resilient resistance”—a tactic of resistance that relies on qualities of resilience such as getting by and adapting to shock. Thinking about sumud as a form of resilient resistance challenges the resilience literature to engage with a greater variety of forms of resilience.
National Action Plans (NAPs) have been hailed as the preferential mode of implementing United Nat... more National Action Plans (NAPs) have been hailed as the preferential mode of implementing United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 at a national level. In recent years, member states, especially post-conflict member states, have been heeding the calls of the United Nations to develop their own National Action Plans. However, there has been limited assessment of whether or not National Action Plans are beneficial to women in post-conflict states. Using evidence from field research in Liberia and Sierra Leone, this article argues that, despite the intent to increase national ownership of 1325 in post-conflict states, National Action Plans are ineffective at creating meaningful local ownership because they are driven by a bureaucratic approach to peacebuilding. Furthermore, implementation of National Action Plans in post-conflict states is hampered by a variety of factors, such as lack of capacity and lack of political will. Finally, we conclude that National Action Plans also do a disservice to the hard work and dedication of local women's organisations.
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Books by Caitlin Ryan
To understand how women experience occupation, this book examines the various ways in which the occupation is directed at making Palestinian women into subjects of power. The work argues that the exercises of power are focused on controlling and disciplining women’s bodies. The objectives are to expose how the exclusions of women’s daily-lived experiences of conflict in the occupied Palestinian territories obscures how power operates, to demonstrate how the elements of Israeli security practices make women insecure, and to highlight how resistance to the occupation can be found embedded within daily life in the occupied territories. Ultimately, all of these themes can be related more broadly to how women might experience conflict and resist subjectification by exposing different ways that subjectifications result in insecurities and resistance to those insecurities. While the book is specific to women in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the exercises of power and enactments of resistance it exposes demonstrate how important it is to take seriously the feminist argument that ‘the personal is international, and the international is personal.’
Peer-Review Articles by Caitlin Ryan
seen as a tactic of resistance through the lens of infrapolitics. The article uses the Palestinian example of sumud to illustrate these two points. Sumud is a tactic of resistance to the Israeli occupation that relies upon adaptation to the difficulties of life under occupation, staying in the territories despite hardship, and asserting Palestinian culture and identity in response to Zionist claims which posit Israelis as the sole legitimate inhabitants of the land. Sumud represents a “resilient resistance”—a tactic of resistance that relies on qualities of resilience such as getting by and adapting to shock. Thinking about sumud as a form of resilient resistance challenges the resilience literature to engage with a greater variety of forms of resilience.
To understand how women experience occupation, this book examines the various ways in which the occupation is directed at making Palestinian women into subjects of power. The work argues that the exercises of power are focused on controlling and disciplining women’s bodies. The objectives are to expose how the exclusions of women’s daily-lived experiences of conflict in the occupied Palestinian territories obscures how power operates, to demonstrate how the elements of Israeli security practices make women insecure, and to highlight how resistance to the occupation can be found embedded within daily life in the occupied territories. Ultimately, all of these themes can be related more broadly to how women might experience conflict and resist subjectification by exposing different ways that subjectifications result in insecurities and resistance to those insecurities. While the book is specific to women in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the exercises of power and enactments of resistance it exposes demonstrate how important it is to take seriously the feminist argument that ‘the personal is international, and the international is personal.’
seen as a tactic of resistance through the lens of infrapolitics. The article uses the Palestinian example of sumud to illustrate these two points. Sumud is a tactic of resistance to the Israeli occupation that relies upon adaptation to the difficulties of life under occupation, staying in the territories despite hardship, and asserting Palestinian culture and identity in response to Zionist claims which posit Israelis as the sole legitimate inhabitants of the land. Sumud represents a “resilient resistance”—a tactic of resistance that relies on qualities of resilience such as getting by and adapting to shock. Thinking about sumud as a form of resilient resistance challenges the resilience literature to engage with a greater variety of forms of resilience.