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Soumita Basu

Associate Professor
PhD (Aberystwyth University, 2009)

Contact Details

sbasu(at)sau.ac.in
South Asian University ,Rajpur Rd, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi, Delhi 110068
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Profile

Soumita Basu is Associate Professor of International Relations at the South Asian University, New Delhi. She has published on gender, international security and the United Nations in edited volumes as well as journals, including International Affairs, International Political Science Review, International Studies Perspectives, Politics & Gender, and Security Dialogue. With Paul Kirby and Laura J Shepherd, she co-edited New Directions in Women, Peace and Security (Bristol University Press, 2020). In 2023, she was awarded a grant-in-aid by the Indian Council of Social Science Research for a research project titled 'India and the UN Security Council: Reaching Beyond the Permanent Seat.'

Soumita was a Senior Guest Professor at the Institute of Political Science and Sociology, University of Würzburg, Germany from November 27 to December 22, 2017, and a Research Fellow (non-residential) at the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa, from May 1, 2020 – April 30, 2023. Prior to joining SAU, she held the Hayward R. Alker and Mellon postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Southern California and Kenyon College, United States, respectively. She has also worked with Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace (WISCOMP), and been associated with the PeaceWomen project of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).

Soumita is a co-lead editor of the Review of International Studies (published by BISA and CUP). She also sits on the editorial boards of International Feminist Journal of Politics and Journal of Global Security Studies. She was part of the IFjP editorial team from 2011-2017, and has been a Senior Editor of the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies (2020-2023). Soumita is a member of the International Studies Association (ISA), the British International Studies Association, the Indian Association of Women's Studies and the WILPF Academic Network. She has contributed to ISA in various capacities (both nominated and elected), and currently chairs its Long Range Planning Committee.

Qualifications

  • PhD in International Politics from Aberystwyth University (2009)
  • MSc in International Relations from University of Bristol (2002)
  • BA (Hons.) Journalism from Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi (2001)

Research Interests

  • Critical Security Studies
  • Feminist International Relations
  • The United Nations
  • Global Governance
  • UN Security Council Resolutions on Women and Peace and Security

Recent Publications

  • 'International Dimensions of Feminist South Asia: The Case of the WPS Agenda' in Amena Mohsin and Shweta Singh (eds.) Feminist International Relations in South Asia, London: Routledge, forthcoming in 2024.
  • 'Conflict and Gendered Violence' in Norma Rossi and Malte Reimann (eds.) Security Studies: An Applied Introduction, London: SAGE, 2024 (with Johny Arokiaraj P.).
  • 'Postcolonial Insights' (textbox) in Fanny Badache, Leah Kimber and Lucile Maertens (eds.) International Organizations and Research Methods: An Introduction, Ann Arbor (MI): The University of Michigan Press, 2023.
  • 'Gendered Dimensions of the United Nations Security Council: Some Notes in View of India's Eighth Term (2021-22)' in Nutan Kapoor Mahawar and Ankita Dutta (eds.), Women and Power: Gender within International Relations and Diplomacy, New Delhi: Macmillan Education and Indian Council of World Affairs, 2022.
  • ‘Women, Peace and Security’ in Tarja Väyrynen, Swati Parashar, Élise Féron and Catia Confortini (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Feminist Peace Research,  2021 (with Akhila Nagar).
  • ‘Health Crises on the UN Security Council’s Agenda: What Does It Mean for Global Health?’ Strategic Analysis, 44:5, 2020 (with João Nunes).
  • New Directions in Women, Peace and Security, Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2020 (co-edited volume, with Paul Kirby and Laura J. Shepherd).
  • ‘Introduction to the special section on “feminist perspectives on diplomacy”’, International Feminist Journal of Politics, 21:1, 2019.
  • “Conclusion” in Manuela Scheuermann and Anja Zürn (eds.), Gender Roles in Peace and Security. Prevent, Protect, Participate, Springer, 2019.
  • ‘Feminist Experiences of “Studying up”: Encounters with International Institutions’, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 47:2, 2019 (with Georgina Holmes et al).
  • ‘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’, International Feminist Journal of Politics, 21:1, 2019 (with Anna-Kaisa Heikkinen).
  • “Security Council Resolution 1325: Toward Gender Equality in Peace and Security Policy Making” in Betty A. Reardon and Asha Hans (eds.), The Gender Imperative: Human Security versus State Security, 2nd edition, New Delhi and Abingdon: Routledge, 2018 (first edition published in 2010).
  • “The United Nations, Women, and Gender” in Robert Denemark et al (eds.), The International Studies Compendium Project, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013; re-published in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies, 2018, DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.013.356 (initially published in 2013).
  • ‘Gender in International Relations: Interdisciplinary Advancements in the Study of Conflict” in Patrick James and Steve A. Yetiv (eds.), Advancing Interdisciplinary Approaches to International Relations, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017 (with Maya Eichler).
  • ‘Prevention in Pieces: Representing Conflict in the Women, Peace and Security Agenda’, Global Affairs, 3:4-5, 2017 (with Laura J. Shepherd).
  • ‘Reconceptualising Regional Security in South Asia: A Critical Security Approach’, Security Dialogue, 48:5, 2017 (with Monika Barthwal-Datta).
  • ‘South Asian Peacekeeping: Regional Possibilities’,  The Round Table: Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, 106: 1, 2017.
  • ‘The UN Security Council and the Political Economy of the WPS Resolutions’, Politics & Gender, 13:4, 2017.
  • “The United Nations” in Pauline Kerr and Geoffrey Wiseman (eds.), Diplomacy in a Globalizing World: Theories and Practices, New York: Oxford University Press, 2017 (with Geoffrey Wiseman) (first edition published in 2013).
  • ‘Weakest “P” in the 1325 Pod?: Realizing Conflict Prevention through UN Security Council Resolution 1325’, International Studies Perspectives, 18: 1, 2017 (with Catia C. Confrontini).
  • ‘Civil society actors and the implementation of Resolution 1325 in India’ in Asha Hans and Swarna Rajagopalan (eds.) Openings for Peace: Women and Security India and ‘1325’, New Delhi: SAGE, 2016.
  • “Gender as National Interest at the UN Security Council”, International Affairs, 92.2, 2016.(FEATURED IN: Virtual issue: 70 years of the United Nations in International Affairs, ed. Thomas G. Weiss and Danielle A. Zach, 2018)
  • ‘The Global South Writes 1325 (Too)’, International Political Science Review, 37: 3, 2016.
  • ‘United Nations Policies on Gender and War’ in Simona Sharoni, Julia Welland, Linda Steiner and Jennifer Pedersen (eds.) Handbook of Gender and War, London: Edward Elgar Publishers, 2016.
  • ‘Land, Water and Food’, in Laura J. Shepherd (ed.) Gender Matters in Global Politics, 2nd ed., London/New York: Routledge, 2015 (with Monika Barthwal-Datta).
  • ‘Forum Essay 6: Emancipatory Potential in Feminist Security Studies’, International Studies Perspectives, 14: 4, 2013.
  • “Security as Emancipation” in Laura J. Shepherd (ed.) Critical Approaches to Security: Theories and Methods, London: Routledge, 2012 (with Joao Reis Nunes).
  • “Security as Emancipation: A Feminist Perspective” in J. Ann Tickner and Laura Sjoberg (eds.), Twenty Years of Feminist International Relations: A Conversation about the Past, Present and Future, London and New York: Routledge, 2011.
  • Book review of Rita Manchanda (eds.). 2017. Women and Politics of Peace: South Asia Narratives on Militarization, Power and Justice. New Delhi: Sage Publications, Seminar, No. 698, 2017.
  • Book review of Valerie M. Hudson and Patricia Leidl. 2015. The Hillary Doctrine: Sex and American Foreign Policy. New York: Columbia University Press, International Affairs, 93: 1, 2017.
  • Book review of Lesley J. Pruitt. 2016. The Women in Blue Helmets: Gender, Policing, and the UN’s First All-Female Peacekeeping Unit. Oakland, CA: University of California Press; and, Sabrina Karim and Kyle Beardsley. 2017. Equal Opportunity Peacekeeping: Women, Peace, and Security in Post-conflict States. New York: Oxford University Press, International Affairs, 94:3, 2018.
  • Book review of ‘Hilkka Pietilä. 2007. The Unfinished Story of Women and the United Nations. New York: United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service’, International Feminist Journal of Politics, 11: 1, 2009.

Last Updated : 28 May 2024