Soumita Basu
Biographic Data
| ID | 3693533 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Soumita Basu |
| GIVEN NAMES | Soumita |
| FAMILY NAME | Basu |
| SIGNATURE | BASU S |
| AFFILIATIONS | South Asian University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5499-6673 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 128 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
A WPS National Action Plan for India
As of May 2025, more than 100 United Nations (UN) member states have adopted National Action Plans (NAPs) for the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and the associated Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. In principle, NAPs are relevant for all states, conflict-affected or otherwise, as these can potentially provide direction towards realising sustainable peace in domestic contexts and meeting international commitments—a…
Challenges and Opportunities for Transnational Advocacy
Transnational advocacy scholarship has illustrated the power of activist networks in overturning Cold War logics; facilitating disarmament and weapons control; tackling climate change; and promoting human rights. Since the 1990s, scholars have demonstrated that non-state actors can shape international outcomes, including through boycotts, persuasion, and information politics. Given the rich research agenda that these scholars set out, what have w…
At 25: What Is a Battered Tool Good For
In an early conversation on the relevance of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325, the resolution is described by Carol Cohn as presenting “an important tool to all of us who seek the empowerment of women and sustainable peace, and who believe that the two are interconnected,” and by Sheri Gibbings as a “tool to justify military occupation on behalf of ‘liberating’ women” (Cohn, Kinsella, and Gibbings 2004, 138–9). Both prospec…
Introduction to the special issue - (Re)writing global gender norms: The role of southern actors
Seeking “a new, differently defined realist school of thought”: Ambassador Anna-Kaisa Heikkinen, head of mission at the representative office of Finland in Ramallah, in conversation with Soumita Basu
It was the late hours of a warm summer evening in 2004. A group of us – young women and men from different parts of South Asia – stood outside a popular nightclub in the Diplomatic Enclave in New D
Feminist Experiences of ‘Studying Up’: Encounters with International Institutions
This article makes the case for feminist IR to build knowledge of international institutions. It emerges from a roundtable titled ‘Challenges and Opportunities for Feminist IR: Researching Gendered Institutions’ which took place at the International Studies Association Annual Convention in Baltimore in 2017. Here, we engage in self-reflexivity, drawing on our conversation to consider what it means for feminist scholars to ‘study up’. We argue tha…
The women in blue helmets: Gender, policing, and the UN's first all-female peacekeeping unit; Equal opportunity peacekeeping: women, peace, and security in post-conflict states
It is widely acknowledged that the Department of Peacekeeping Operations was among the first to incorporate gender into the United Nations policy architecture on international peace and security in the 1990s. This was, and continues predominantly to be, operationalized in the form of policies directed towards women—securing their protection as part of mission mandates, and increasing their participation in UN peacekeeping operations. UN Security …
Prevention in pieces: Representing conflict in the Women, Peace and Security agenda
The Women, Peace and Security agenda is often operationalized across three priority areas: the participation of women in peace and security governance; the protection of women’s rights and bodies (specifically, but not limited to, conflict-related sexual violence); and the prevention of conflict. In this short paper, we explore violence prevention in more detail, and argue that it is of critical importance to define conflict as well as prevention…
Reconceptualizing regional security in South Asia: A critical security approach
South Asia has garnered much attention in international security scholarship and policymaking, not least due to the number of protracted armed conflicts in the region. Yet, the dominant discourse on regional security in South Asia fails to adequately capture the insecurities that undermine the everyday lives and livelihoods of a majority of South Asians. The article first interrogates this prevalent discourse to reveal the inadequacies of traditi…
South Asian Peacekeeping: Regional Possibilities
South Asia contributes the largest contingent of peacekeepers to the United Nations, and yet remains a fragile region in terms of peace within its own borders. This article argues that, although the implications of South Asia’s engagement in global peacekeeping operations has been the subject of academic study, not enough attention has been paid to how South Asian expertise in peacekeeping can be harnessed as a resource for regional cooperation
The Hillary doctrine: Sex and American foreign policy
Following the defeat of Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2016 United States presidential election, does The Hillary doctrine have any political purchase? The answer is an affirmative in light of the authors' contention that this foreign policy doctrine is not solely about Clinton, its most fervent champion, but about the growing—albeit patchy—attention in US policy circles to ‘the proposition that the empowerment of women and girls is a stabilizing …
The UN Security Council and the Political Economy of the WPS Resolutions
As of June 2017, there were eight United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs) on “women and peace and security”—UNSCRs 1325, 1820, 1888, 1889, 1960, 2106, 2122, and 2242. These UNSCRs recognize the gendered nature of armed conflicts and peace processes. They propose institutional provisions geared mainly toward protecting women and girls during armed conflicts and promoting their participation in conflict resolution and prevention. In ad…
Weakest “P” in the 1325 Pod? Realizing Conflict Prevention through Security Council Resolution 1325
The year 2015 marked the fifteenth anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women and Peace and Security. This article analyzes the marginalization of the resolution’s prevention mandate in the theoretical and policy literatures. Our feminist analysis reveals that shortcomings in the policy arena are foreshadowed in conflict prevention scholarship. Conflict prevention research under-theorizes gender drivers of conf…
The Global South writes 1325 (too)
The passage and subsequent implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 at the international level tend to be associated with efforts of governments, non-governmental organizations and international organizations that are based primarily in the Global North. While such skewed dynamics of global governance are not unique to women, peace and security (WPS) issues, widely shared assumptions about the Global North being t…
Gender as national interest at the UN Security Council
The United Nations Security Council has often been identified as a key actor responsible for the uneven trajectory of the international Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. It is, however, the Council members—who also seek to advance their national interest at this intergovernmental forum—that are pivotal in the Council's deliberations and shape its policies. Yet, little attention has been paid to this aspect of deliberative politics at the Co…
“We Always Live in Fear”: Antidepressant Prescriptions by Unlicensed Doctors in India
Anthropological Engagements with Modern Psychotropy
Emancipatory Potential in Feminist Security Studies
Forum: The State of Feminist Security Studies: Continuing the Conversation. This forum comprises seven pieces conceived in response to the recent Politics & Gender Critical Perspectives section that featured contributions from Carol Cohn, Valerie Hudson, Jennifer Lobasz, Laura Sjoberg, Ann Tickner, Annick Wibben, and Lauren Wilcox (P&G 2011, Vol. 7, Issue 4). Throughout, we refer to this collection as “the CP section.”
The Unlicensed Lives of Antidepressants in India: Generic Drugs, Unqualified Practitioners, and Floating Prescriptions
Antidepressant uses have been rising rapidly over the past decades. Two main theories have been advanced to explain this. One claims that socio-economic change causes a global rise of depressive illness. The other holds that European and North American corporations are aggressively marketing antidepressants to expand their global reach. Both theories assume that multinational capitalism drives rising depression rates. Based on ethnographic data f…
The Global South writes 1325 (too)
The passage and subsequent implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 at the international level tend to be associated with efforts of governments, non-governmental organizations and international organizations that are based primarily in the Global North. While such skewed dynamics of global governance are not unique to women, peace and security (WPS) issues, widely shared assumptions about the Global North being t…
The Unlicensed Lives of Antidepressants in India: Generic Drugs, Unqualified Practitioners, and Floating Prescriptions
Antidepressant uses have been rising rapidly over the past decades. Two main theories have been advanced to explain this. One claims that socio-economic change causes a global rise of depressive illness. The other holds that European and North American corporations are aggressively marketing antidepressants to expand their global reach. Both theories assume that multinational capitalism drives rising depression rates. Based on ethnographic data f…
Feminist Experiences of ‘Studying Up’: Encounters with International Institutions
This article makes the case for feminist IR to build knowledge of international institutions. It emerges from a roundtable titled ‘Challenges and Opportunities for Feminist IR: Researching Gendered Institutions’ which took place at the International Studies Association Annual Convention in Baltimore in 2017. Here, we engage in self-reflexivity, drawing on our conversation to consider what it means for feminist scholars to ‘study up’. We argue tha…
The UN Security Council and the Political Economy of the WPS Resolutions
As of June 2017, there were eight United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs) on “women and peace and security”—UNSCRs 1325, 1820, 1888, 1889, 1960, 2106, 2122, and 2242. These UNSCRs recognize the gendered nature of armed conflicts and peace processes. They propose institutional provisions geared mainly toward protecting women and girls during armed conflicts and promoting their participation in conflict resolution and prevention. In ad…
Gender as national interest at the UN Security Council
The United Nations Security Council has often been identified as a key actor responsible for the uneven trajectory of the international Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. It is, however, the Council members—who also seek to advance their national interest at this intergovernmental forum—that are pivotal in the Council's deliberations and shape its policies. Yet, little attention has been paid to this aspect of deliberative politics at the Co…
Emancipatory Potential in Feminist Security Studies
Forum: The State of Feminist Security Studies: Continuing the Conversation. This forum comprises seven pieces conceived in response to the recent Politics & Gender Critical Perspectives section that featured contributions from Carol Cohn, Valerie Hudson, Jennifer Lobasz, Laura Sjoberg, Ann Tickner, Annick Wibben, and Lauren Wilcox (P&G 2011, Vol. 7, Issue 4). Throughout, we refer to this collection as “the CP section.”
Weakest “P” in the 1325 Pod? Realizing Conflict Prevention through Security Council Resolution 1325
The year 2015 marked the fifteenth anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women and Peace and Security. This article analyzes the marginalization of the resolution’s prevention mandate in the theoretical and policy literatures. Our feminist analysis reveals that shortcomings in the policy arena are foreshadowed in conflict prevention scholarship. Conflict prevention research under-theorizes gender drivers of conf…
Reconceptualizing regional security in South Asia: A critical security approach
South Asia has garnered much attention in international security scholarship and policymaking, not least due to the number of protracted armed conflicts in the region. Yet, the dominant discourse on regional security in South Asia fails to adequately capture the insecurities that undermine the everyday lives and livelihoods of a majority of South Asians. The article first interrogates this prevalent discourse to reveal the inadequacies of traditi…
The Hillary doctrine: Sex and American foreign policy
Following the defeat of Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2016 United States presidential election, does The Hillary doctrine have any political purchase? The answer is an affirmative in light of the authors' contention that this foreign policy doctrine is not solely about Clinton, its most fervent champion, but about the growing—albeit patchy—attention in US policy circles to ‘the proposition that the empowerment of women and girls is a stabilizing …
At 25: What Is a Battered Tool Good For
In an early conversation on the relevance of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325, the resolution is described by Carol Cohn as presenting “an important tool to all of us who seek the empowerment of women and sustainable peace, and who believe that the two are interconnected,” and by Sheri Gibbings as a “tool to justify military occupation on behalf of ‘liberating’ women” (Cohn, Kinsella, and Gibbings 2004, 138–9). Both prospec…
Challenges and Opportunities for Transnational Advocacy
Transnational advocacy scholarship has illustrated the power of activist networks in overturning Cold War logics; facilitating disarmament and weapons control; tackling climate change; and promoting human rights. Since the 1990s, scholars have demonstrated that non-state actors can shape international outcomes, including through boycotts, persuasion, and information politics. Given the rich research agenda that these scholars set out, what have w…
Prevention in pieces: Representing conflict in the Women, Peace and Security agenda
The Women, Peace and Security agenda is often operationalized across three priority areas: the participation of women in peace and security governance; the protection of women’s rights and bodies (specifically, but not limited to, conflict-related sexual violence); and the prevention of conflict. In this short paper, we explore violence prevention in more detail, and argue that it is of critical importance to define conflict as well as prevention…
The Unlicensed Lives of Antidepressants in India: Generic Drugs, Unqualified Practitioners, and Floating Prescriptions
Antidepressant uses have been rising rapidly over the past decades. Two main theories have been advanced to explain this. One claims that socio-economic change causes a global rise of depressive illness. The other holds that European and North American corporations are aggressively marketing antidepressants to expand their global reach. Both theories assume that multinational capitalism drives rising depression rates. Based on ethnographic data f…
Emancipatory Potential in Feminist Security Studies
Forum: The State of Feminist Security Studies: Continuing the Conversation. This forum comprises seven pieces conceived in response to the recent Politics & Gender Critical Perspectives section that featured contributions from Carol Cohn, Valerie Hudson, Jennifer Lobasz, Laura Sjoberg, Ann Tickner, Annick Wibben, and Lauren Wilcox (P&G 2011, Vol. 7, Issue 4). Throughout, we refer to this collection as “the CP section.”
“We Always Live in Fear”: Antidepressant Prescriptions by Unlicensed Doctors in India
Anthropological Engagements with Modern Psychotropy
Weakest “P” in the 1325 Pod? Realizing Conflict Prevention through Security Council Resolution 1325
The year 2015 marked the fifteenth anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women and Peace and Security. This article analyzes the marginalization of the resolution’s prevention mandate in the theoretical and policy literatures. Our feminist analysis reveals that shortcomings in the policy arena are foreshadowed in conflict prevention scholarship. Conflict prevention research under-theorizes gender drivers of conf…
The Global South writes 1325 (too)
The passage and subsequent implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 at the international level tend to be associated with efforts of governments, non-governmental organizations and international organizations that are based primarily in the Global North. While such skewed dynamics of global governance are not unique to women, peace and security (WPS) issues, widely shared assumptions about the Global North being t…
Gender as national interest at the UN Security Council
The United Nations Security Council has often been identified as a key actor responsible for the uneven trajectory of the international Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. It is, however, the Council members—who also seek to advance their national interest at this intergovernmental forum—that are pivotal in the Council's deliberations and shape its policies. Yet, little attention has been paid to this aspect of deliberative politics at the Co…
Prevention in pieces: Representing conflict in the Women, Peace and Security agenda
The Women, Peace and Security agenda is often operationalized across three priority areas: the participation of women in peace and security governance; the protection of women’s rights and bodies (specifically, but not limited to, conflict-related sexual violence); and the prevention of conflict. In this short paper, we explore violence prevention in more detail, and argue that it is of critical importance to define conflict as well as prevention…
Reconceptualizing regional security in South Asia: A critical security approach
South Asia has garnered much attention in international security scholarship and policymaking, not least due to the number of protracted armed conflicts in the region. Yet, the dominant discourse on regional security in South Asia fails to adequately capture the insecurities that undermine the everyday lives and livelihoods of a majority of South Asians. The article first interrogates this prevalent discourse to reveal the inadequacies of traditi…
South Asian Peacekeeping: Regional Possibilities
South Asia contributes the largest contingent of peacekeepers to the United Nations, and yet remains a fragile region in terms of peace within its own borders. This article argues that, although the implications of South Asia’s engagement in global peacekeeping operations has been the subject of academic study, not enough attention has been paid to how South Asian expertise in peacekeeping can be harnessed as a resource for regional cooperation
The Hillary doctrine: Sex and American foreign policy
Following the defeat of Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2016 United States presidential election, does The Hillary doctrine have any political purchase? The answer is an affirmative in light of the authors' contention that this foreign policy doctrine is not solely about Clinton, its most fervent champion, but about the growing—albeit patchy—attention in US policy circles to ‘the proposition that the empowerment of women and girls is a stabilizing …
The UN Security Council and the Political Economy of the WPS Resolutions
As of June 2017, there were eight United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs) on “women and peace and security”—UNSCRs 1325, 1820, 1888, 1889, 1960, 2106, 2122, and 2242. These UNSCRs recognize the gendered nature of armed conflicts and peace processes. They propose institutional provisions geared mainly toward protecting women and girls during armed conflicts and promoting their participation in conflict resolution and prevention. In ad…
Feminist Experiences of ‘Studying Up’: Encounters with International Institutions
This article makes the case for feminist IR to build knowledge of international institutions. It emerges from a roundtable titled ‘Challenges and Opportunities for Feminist IR: Researching Gendered Institutions’ which took place at the International Studies Association Annual Convention in Baltimore in 2017. Here, we engage in self-reflexivity, drawing on our conversation to consider what it means for feminist scholars to ‘study up’. We argue tha…
The women in blue helmets: Gender, policing, and the UN's first all-female peacekeeping unit; Equal opportunity peacekeeping: women, peace, and security in post-conflict states
It is widely acknowledged that the Department of Peacekeeping Operations was among the first to incorporate gender into the United Nations policy architecture on international peace and security in the 1990s. This was, and continues predominantly to be, operationalized in the form of policies directed towards women—securing their protection as part of mission mandates, and increasing their participation in UN peacekeeping operations. UN Security …
Seeking “a new, differently defined realist school of thought”: Ambassador Anna-Kaisa Heikkinen, head of mission at the representative office of Finland in Ramallah, in conversation with Soumita Basu
It was the late hours of a warm summer evening in 2004. A group of us – young women and men from different parts of South Asia – stood outside a popular nightclub in the Diplomatic Enclave in New D
Introduction to the special issue - (Re)writing global gender norms: The role of southern actors
A WPS National Action Plan for India
As of May 2025, more than 100 United Nations (UN) member states have adopted National Action Plans (NAPs) for the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and the associated Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. In principle, NAPs are relevant for all states, conflict-affected or otherwise, as these can potentially provide direction towards realising sustainable peace in domestic contexts and meeting international commitments—a…
Challenges and Opportunities for Transnational Advocacy
Transnational advocacy scholarship has illustrated the power of activist networks in overturning Cold War logics; facilitating disarmament and weapons control; tackling climate change; and promoting human rights. Since the 1990s, scholars have demonstrated that non-state actors can shape international outcomes, including through boycotts, persuasion, and information politics. Given the rich research agenda that these scholars set out, what have w…
At 25: What Is a Battered Tool Good For
In an early conversation on the relevance of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325, the resolution is described by Carol Cohn as presenting “an important tool to all of us who seek the empowerment of women and sustainable peace, and who believe that the two are interconnected,” and by Sheri Gibbings as a “tool to justify military occupation on behalf of ‘liberating’ women” (Cohn, Kinsella, and Gibbings 2004, 138–9). Both prospec…
Political science (16 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Politics (12 works) · Law (10 works) · Law (10 works) · Gender Politics and Representation (9 works) · Gender, Security, and Conflict (9 works) · Public Administration (8 works) · Public Administration (7 works) · Gender Studies (5 works)