Since the turn of the 21st century, the world has witnessed a change in conflict towards a greater incidence of intra-state conflict, while efforts to end it have also improved in a number of ways, at least in relation to conceptual and policy tools for resolution and peacebuilding. This applies to the situation in Africa as well. In response, on 31 October 2000, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted the Resolution 1325 that stressed the protection of women in conflict situations and called for and provided for a broad framework for empowering women to take part in the prevention and resolution of conflict including in peace building, post-conflict reconstruction and mediation. South Africa is considered one of the most progressive countries in the pursuit of empowerment of women evidenced in the large numbers of women in parliament, the passing of gender-sensitive policies that protect women from violence and prejudice, and the setting up of structures like SA Women in Dialogue to promote women involvement in peace-making. Whether the same progressive conduct can be found in relation to its implementation of the UNSCR 1325 on women, peace and security is uncertain. The literature is unclear about the implications of this failure to plan implementation as part of the discussion of the actual evidence of implementation of the resolution, if at all. Of particular interest is that South Africa has also made a name for itself for championing peaceful resolution of conflict in line with the UN charter and the African Union’s Constitutive Act. Its mediation efforts in countries like Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho and Zimbabwe have received a lot of attention from political dialogues and academic discussions alike. Yet, this literature is silence on the extent to which South Africa has included women in mediation and the reasons why this has not been a remarkable achievement in spite of South Africa’s proud record in gender empowerment generally. Given the country’s involvement in mediation efforts, this study analyses whether these efforts have complied with UNSCR 1325 requirements of equal opportunity for appointment and inclusion of women as lead mediators and Special Envoys. Employing a feminist conflict theory lens on available primary and secondary data, the study finds that, indeed South Africa has not done enough consciously to implement the terms of the resolution and has performed poorly on the involvement of women in its sizeable list of mediation efforts, thus undermining the moral standing of its interventions. A number of reasons are offered to explain this including historical, institutional and societal ones. A few recommendations are outlined at the end. / Mini Dissertation (MDips)--University of Pretoria, 2018. / Political Sciences / MA Diplomatic Studies / Unrestricted

This dissertation examines the concept of Other Diplomacies and argues for a human-centric approach to studying diplomacies. / The academic field of Diplomatic Studies has long been insulated from critical interventions in the broader discipline of International Relations. While critical discussions surrounding gender, race, and class have been in ascendance in International Relations, Diplomatic Studies has managed to police its traditional disciplinary boundaries by centring scholarship around states and their accredited agents. The state-centric focus of the field has resulted in scholarship privileging the interests of states, which are abstract entities, over those of actual living communities; therefore, engage with issues primarily important to masculine, Eurocentric, and elite actors. This dissertation intervenes in the academic field of Diplomatic Studies to decentre the state and reorient the field’s focus towards human-centric issues. It argues that societal non-state actors engage in Other Diplomacies as they interact with each other across boundaries of perceived differences. Thereby the dissertation contributes to the literature on Other Diplomacies by showing how Sri Lankan migrant workers engage in Other Diplomacies as they interact with their interlocutors in South Korea. It shows how Sri Lankan migrant workers utilise diplomatic skills to understand and navigate their gendered, racialised, and classist identities. This dissertation also contributes to the literature on consular affairs by arguing that it constitutes a part of Diplomatic Studies rather than a separate field of study. I sustain the human-centric focus of Other Diplomacies and shows that societal non-state actors provide and receive consular assistance from each other due to inadequate levels of assistance from their state. I propose that Other Diplomacies scholarship sustain a human-centric focus to uncover the gendered, racialised, and classist power hierarchies that societal actors must negotiate across as they interact with other actors, both state and non-state. Thereby this dissertation contributes to the critically inclined scholarship of Diplomatic Studies in particular and International Relations in general. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The academic study of diplomacy has focused on states and their accredited agents. This has resulted in scholarly work that mostly limits itself to issues, interests, and solutions relevant to states and their leaders. While these concerns are important and relevant, the scholarship has neglected to take the concerns of ordinary people and communities into account. The implications of this have been the excluding of issues related to race, class, and gender, among other distinctions from the scholarship. This dissertation argues that scholars studying diplomacy should also place humans at the centre of concern, rather than only states. It does so by examining how Sri Lankan migrant workers in South Korea engage in diplomacy through the functions of representation, communication, and negotiation. Therefore, the dissertation contributes by centring ordinary people and communities in the study of diplomacy and international relations and showing how they matter.