Advice for Clinton: Open Mideast peace talks to women

Want a breakthrough in Mideast peace negotiations? Open the talks to women — that’s the nontraditional approach that two women from the Institute for Inclusive Security advise in a recent opinion piece.

Of course Secretary Clinton, a woman, is already facilitator in chief for the peace talks, taking place today in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. But the opinion piece, by Carla Koppell and Rebecca Miller, argues for the direct and indirect inclusion of women, women’s groups, and other civil-society organizations. When such groups are included, the peace process becomes more transparent and the "fog of pessimism" brought on by secrecy lifts. The authors write:

Research shows that when women are included in negotiations, they regularly raise key issues otherwise ignored by male negotiators. Women often facilitate cross-conflict talks on the margins of formal negotiations that cultivate public investment in negotiations. When formally involved, women often help talks gain traction.

Importantly, the authors argue that transparency, not secrecy, drives peaceful resolution, and they point to research by Darren Kew and Anthony Wanis-St. John that demonstrates a correlation between the degree of involvement of civil-society groups during peace negotiations and the likelihood that a peace agreement will hold. (I think it’s this study.)

Koppell and Miller advise Clinton that she can be more inclusive of women and civil-society groups by doing the following:

•Soliciting topics for the negotiating agenda from civil society and women;
•Organising public consultations with women and civil society organisations to hear their perspectives on the core issues;
•Creating a formal consultative mechanism for civil society groups to feed input indirectly into negotiations;
•Appointing gender advisers or civil society liaisons to assist official delegations; and
•Offering negotiating teams additional seats at talks if women are added.

You never know. This outside-the-box approach just might work. At the very least, it can’t make things worse.