(Background noise) - [Narrator] Air Force has announced the creation of a new information operations, technical training school. (air whooshing) - [Instructor] First man, simply must (mumbles) how to train, offer, form, partner and innovate any potential adversary. - Air Force Military Training has an updated curriculum with a new focus on readiness and (mumbles). - The first command the Air Force starts here. (guns bang) - [] Hey everybody. Welcome in episode 38, of the (mumble) today. Thanks for this subscribe stream or download and whoever you might be listening. Then if you've got some extra time and want to leave us a review, we certainly would appreciate that as well. We always appreciate the feedback from everyone out there listening. My name is Dan Hawkins, from the Air Education and Training Command, Public Affairs office and your host for this professional development podcast, dedicated to bringing total force big airmen, insight tips, tricks, and lessons learned from the recruiting training, and education world. Great podcast today, as we're talking with Dr. Kristin Hasson and Assistant Professor, of regional and cultural studies, for middle East, North Africa, at the air force culture and language center at Air University. And she's going to talk about her upcoming presentation, entitled women, Peace and Security. That will be on display during the AU fifth annual language, regional expertise and culture symposium, that's gonna happen October 14th to the 16th. That's a virtual conference it's free, to register and attend will be held on Microsoft teams. So that's the way that you can attend. The theme of the symposium is called Hindsight 2020. And Dr. Hasson is gonna talk about Women, Peace and Security and why that's so important and how it relates to the theme of the conference of Hindsight 2020. So what can we learn from history and apply it to today, as we look to increase our ability to understand, and better operate inside of different theaters around the world. Women, Peace and Security refers to a set of resolutions statements and initiatives regarding the importance, of gender equality to peace and security efforts, as part of, a United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, that was passed back 20 years ago now in the year 2000. And that resolution, formally acknowledged the changing nature of warfare, including the inordinate impact of war on Women, and also stress the importance of Women's equal participation and full involvement and all efforts relating to the maintenance and promotion of peace and security. So a really in depth conversation with Dr. Hasson, and she is very passionate about this subject, and she makes a lot of great points about why the Women, Peace and Security. Peace of negotiations is so important. The really striking stats she's able to provide about Women's direct participation in peace negotiations, increasing the sustainability and quality of peace. It's really eye-opening. So I think you're going to enjoy it. And of course, she's going to talk about the symposium and the great lineup of Speakers, that they are going to have the commander of US ascent, is going to be part of this symposium. Lieutenant General, Kirk Smith, the deputy commander of US Africa command will also be a Presenter. And she also talks about Dr. David Vine, who is a Professor of Political Anthropology at American University in Washington DC, as a Presenter. So lots of great information about this language, regional expertise and culture symposium. So let's get right to it. Episode 38 of the Air Force starts here, launches right now. (air whooshing) - [Dr. Kristin Hasson] Well, I'm the Assistant Professor of Middle East and North Africa Studies at the Air Force Culture and Language Venture. I've been there since February, 2017. - And, and so you're in the Middle East, North Africa department. And tell us what all does that really mean? I mean, it sounds pretty expansive, but what are some of the classes and the things that you do at the ASC-LC? - So as most of our Air University was managed problem, now our centers in chords are quite intertwined. So I teach elective and in the regional security studies, program for Air War College and elective and countries, focused on the Middle East and North Africa. But the Air Force Culture and Language Center is a department or a center of the affiliated with Air War College. So for instance, previously I've taught courses about Modern Middle East history and sectarianism. But right now I'm actually teaching a course on Women, Peace and Security in Bangkok. - So you talked about Women, Peace and Security, and that's actually why we're talking today. You're getting ready for a presentation, during the upcoming Fifth Annual Era University Language, Regional expertise and Culture symposium. And the theme of this symposium is Hindsight 2020, but I wanted to start with the Women, Peace and Security. It really (mumbles) my interest, especially when we talk about things like diversity is war fighting imperatives, and those kinds of topics and equality across the board. So tell us, what is Women, Peace and Security in the context of your presentation for the symposium? - Yeah. I kind of fall into this topic myself. I had been studying ethnic, religious, and national differences among populations of the Middle East. And that led me to consider gender, or gendered experiences also as identities that people have throughout the world. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to publish a book this past June called, Inform in Gender. And that is a much more academic side of things, that introduced me to the women (mumbles) policy agenda in the US. So WPS stands for Women, Peace and Security, broadly, it refers to a federal resolution statements and a meshy grievance regarding the importance of gender equality to peace and security efforts. And the big thing, if you've heard anything about WPS, you've probably heard about the UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which was passed in 2000. Basically just stresses the importance of Women's equal participation and full involvement and all efforts relating to the maintenance, and promotion of peace and security. So from there, we have the US Pastoral WPS National Action Plan in 2011, and another in 2016. And in 2017, President Trump signed into law, a bipartisan congressional WPS act, which is live most recently to a June, 2020 DOB Strategic Framework and Implementation Plan. So despite of participation and prioritization, too many people have not yet heard of WPS, myself included until quite recently, but if you are familiar with it, you've probably heard there are these four pillars, which basically talks about the life cycle of Women in peace and security efforts from conflict prevention. The best way to win was to prevent harm, to participation at all stages of conflict, both in civilian and security sectors, protection of girls and Women from sexual and gender based violence, and finally belief in recovery to transition from conflict to peace. So if I have to come up with a more succinct anchor, I would just say, WPS is the full and meaningful participation of Women in the life cycle of security. - Yeah. And I found it interesting as I read through some of the background material that you sent me, but how things can differ even between cultures when it comes to Women, Peace and Security. So, can you give an example of that, and then why that's so important to the Air Force war fighter? - Absolutely. So, our notions of gender differ between cultures, for sure. Think about in the US, if we have a baby girl, we put up pink bubble and If we have a baby a boy, (mumbles) something silly like that. But that's not necessarily a universal thing. That's a cultural influence. So that changes when we probably welcome to mind for most people is recent Wars or deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan and knowing that, things like honor, or modesty (mumbles), that the women have a less active role in the public life of various societies. WPS can be a universal policy agenda for sure, but it needs to be applied in culturally specific ways that will resonate with each population. So it's okay to look different in the US (mumbles). In Jordan, for instance, they've got a great national action plan, and we're displacing working there as well. And it doesn't need to look the same to honor that, but why it's important for Airmen, DOD and POLO, you ask the government more broadly is, first of all, outcomes are more successful on both halves of the population are involved. Women's direct participation in peace negotiations. We have studies to show that it increases the sustainability and quality of the peace. We often hear this figure from a big study, that peace agreements are 35% more likely to last 15 years or more, when women are included in the peace building process. That's pretty straight forward. when the whole of your population is represented in the peace, it has a better chance of succeeding. Yet, despite this study between 1992 and 2018, Women constituted just 13% of negotiators, 3% of mediators and 4% of (mumbles). The other reason I think it's important is because of the absence of Women's perspective in participation, actively (mumbles) security, and can really hinder effective policy development and implementation. Another lighthearted example, if we were planning for a new base or a new temporary camp for displaced people and a group of only one gender is involved, they'll map that out according to their experience of the world and what they think that they need. And then you might end up with missing bathrooms or missing hygiene products or missing ablutions stations, depending on the people in that area. So planning and operations are basically likely to overlook elements, if they lack a gender perspective. Also, we operate in spaces where women have strategic access to communities on the ground that men can't reach. We saw success with female engagement teams, or human terrain system in Iraq and Afghanistan, where active duty women are able to get access, to local (mumbles) and children, or do security checks for women who are potential security threats. So we have just a couple of examples where the mission is actively hindered without the presence of women. - Yeah, I (mumbles)-- - (mumbles) - I was just going to say, I found it interesting too. Part of your presentation is talking about the nature of modern warfare and, and soft power versus hard power. And that kind of talks to this, the human terrain systems you were just mentioning and the women on the ground, having an impact by being able to reach the women of the host country in essence. - Exactly. In ways that men don't have access to, or will term their mission by speaking accessing. - Yeah. So when you look at your program as a whole with Women, Peace and Security, and how does this fit into the overall theme of the symposium coming up here in a few weeks, that's themed Hindsight 2020? - Well, I thought it was fitting since this is the 20th anniversary of UNSCR-1325, which calls for women for meaningful participation. We're kind of looking back to glean best practices and lessons (mumbles) to go forward. (mumbles) Hindsight makes me think of basically understanding something only after an event has happened, but that can be very valuable when you still have time to get it right. And WPS is at that exciting crossroads now and leave us and globally where we've invested time and resources into building the climax. But now it's time to really take those best practices and lessons learned from the last 20 years and get to work and reap the benefits. - And so I wanted to take a minute and talk about, how Women, Peace and Security. And then of course, probably most of the topics that are going to be discussed at the language regional expertise and culture symposium, but how that fits into helping develop those partnerships with our allies around the world, at the OSD Air Force, and even AATC levels where general web's priority fostering and developing strategic relationships. - I see two things. So the first is of course, WPS is not just about women, or it's certainly not saying that women are monolithic group. I'm just saying take back and you have the token woman there. So we're good to go. It's not instead of men, but it's in addition. So we have this diverse coalition that can represent the population in question. I forget where I came across this, but I remember reading something. Imagine 20 men sitting together around the table to make a decision about how to handle a problem, and the outcome they would reach. And then imagine 20 women doing the same, the outcome they would reach. They're gonna necessarily be skewed and their experience of the world. But if we can bring 10 men and 10 women from a multitude of diverse backgrounds, they're going to come up with answers that reflect and see the modern problems we face today, much more than organizational group thing. The other thing I would say is back to the Hindsight idea, things seem pretty clear in Hindsight, but now we're living in these complex environments that we don't yet have the luxury of Hindsight for maybe in another 20 years of we talking about the problems and the decisions that were made in 2020. We know culture and language skills can't be taught in just in time training. Those are things we need to invest in to build partnerships and relationships now, because by the time we realized that we need it, it's too late to get up to speed. So I think the best thing we can do is, learn from our mistakes and from our successes and get ready for the current and future friends, before we're stuck, just reacting to a new threat that comes up. - As General Brown, his (mumbles), our new Air Force, Chief of Staff accelerate change or lose. And this is definitely a front to do that. But I wanted to close out with some information about the symposium, it's coming up on October 14th to the 16th. And we talked about the theme of Hindsight, 2020. Some great information that I found was it's very much free to register and attend, although you must re register to actually attend it. Cause it's going to be 100% virtual. But I wanted to ask you, as I look down this list of Speakers, some pretty impressive Speakers who have first hand experience on the ground and how language regional expertise and culture are helping, or maybe hindering their operations. I think it's going to be a lot of great information at the symposium. - I agree this great lineup of featured Speakers is... I don't know if it's a love letter to the AFCLLC or from the ASCLLC, but this is our network of scholars and senior leaders who we've had relationships with for our various programming in the past. And I think it will really provide, a critical reflection critical in the sense of like an academic critical analysis. where we've been in the last 20 years, and taking into consideration our current leadership initiatives, where we want to go from here. As you said, it is all virtual and it's being held on teams. So that shouldn't be a problem for the most Air Force listeners, but we also have tech support on hand to help anyone set up a team account. That shouldn't be the one thing that keeps you from participating. - I mean, you have the Commander of Air Forces central command in Southwest Asia, US, Africa command there. Deputy commander, Lieutenant General, Kirk Smith will be there. Speaking Major General Cornish, He's got about 30 duty titles, but he is the Commander of ninth air and space expeditionary task force in Afghanistan, as well as the Commander of NATO air command. Afghanistan works with ASIN as well. So just, a ton of other folks. We also have some civilians as well. So a very diverse mix of Speakers for the symposium. I'm curious as you look down the list, who are you maybe most interested in hearing from? - Well, I can't pick a favor. I'm really interested to hear from all of them. The two, I guess the highlight are, you mentioned Lieutenant General (mumbles) Who's the commander of US (mumbles). He recently came through our, our Golpac program, which is maybe a different podcast for a different day, but he is just a sharp, compassionate, wonderful leader that I would love to follow up the whole day. I'm sure he'll have some insightful remarks. Also, Dr. David Vine, as you mentioned, one of the civilian scholars, he's expatriate of Political Anthropology at American University, and he's coming to give remarks about his book called, Base Nation. I think there's more to the title, but that's the primary part to offer that critical reflection on, what the US needs to be thinking of address access locations for Florida operating locations or basis, and how that either strengthened or strained our relationships with our partners downrange. - Well, it's no doubt a great lineup. So if you have the opportunity to attend or at least attend some of the presentations, you can check out more information at the Air University website, that's; www.airuniversity.aaf.edu/aafclc. And that's right there on the homepage. So you can click there for more information on how to register for this free conference that will be on Microsoft teams, 100% virtual. So Dr. Hasson really wanted to say, thanks for telling us a little bit about Women, Peace and Security, which is your presentation at the symposium, and giving us a little bit of insight into what the event's all about. - Thanks so much (mumbles) I hope (mumbles) Join us will be really fun. (air whooshing) - Just a ton to unpack there. A great podcast with Dr. Hasson, as she talked about Women, Peace and Security, her upcoming presentation at the fifth annual AU language, regional expertise and culture symposium. Again, that's coming up October 14th to the 16th, registration is free, and the virtual platform will be on Microsoft teams. So registration is required, but make sure you check out this year's conference. The theme Hindsight 2020, a lineup of great speakers. You can find more information and how to register at area universities website at, www.airuniversity.aaf.edu/afclc/au-lrec. As a reminder, you can follow air education and training command on social media. We're on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The AETC command team, General web and Chief Thompson. They're on social media as well. Again, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for our entire AETC public affairs team. I'm Dan Hawkins, so long. We'll talk to you next time. And the Air Force starts here.