Women and the Anti-Nuclear Resistance

23 Feb 2024 | APLN

23 February 2024

This week, Nicole George examines the “invisible” role of women in the anti-nuclear movement and Natalie Sambhi considers Indonesia’s changing role in the Asia-Pacific following Prabowo Subianto’s presidential win.

We also share news of our upcoming expert database on Asia-Pacific Women in International Security. If you identify as a woman from the Asia-Pacific and would like to participate, we invite you to complete our brief questionnaire.

This week’s activities from our network include analysis on deterrence on the Korean Peninsula, reconciliation in Myanmar, Indonesian foreign policy, and more.

Making the “Invisible” Visible: Women and the Anti-Nuclear Resistance in the Pacific Islands

In this essay, Nicole George discusses the often-overlooked role of women in the anti-nuclear movement, particularly women in the Pacific Islands. She provides a history of Pacific women’s anti-nuclear activism, touching on women-led resistance against US nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands, women’s solidarity across the Pacific, and resistance in literary and academic writing.

Ultimately, George argues that women have “laid the foundations for the multilateral solidarity that Pacific Island states show in resistance to nuclear weapons today.”

Read the essay

Related publications

Keeping Nuclear Memories Alive

Brooke Takala argues that while decolonisation and independence have been at the core of the anti-nuclear movement in the Pacific region, anti-colonial roots of the movement are being erased as the global disarmament regime becomes increasingly centered in the West.

The Politics of Nuclear Waste Disposal: Lessons from Australia

Jim Green and Dimity Hawkins explore Australia’s historical mismanagement of nuclear waste. They emphasise the infringement on Indigenous rights, urge legal reforms, and question the government’s capacity to handle high-level nuclear waste challenges under AUKUS.

Indonesia’s Prabowo Presidency: Is the Asia-Pacific Ready for it?

Last week, Indonesia elected Prabowo Subianto as its new president. Indonesia’s role as a leading ASEAN country and Asian middle power leaves many wondering what Prabowo’s presidency will mean for the region.

In this commentary, Natalie Sambhi explores what to expect from the president-elect, what it means to be a “continuity” candidate, Prabowo’s foreign policy plans, and what Indonesia hopes to see in the Asia-Pacific.

Read the commentary

Asia-Pacific Women in International Security Database

APLN is building an open-access database of Asia-Pacific Women in International Security to be launched on International Women’s Day (March 8).

This database will include women from the Asia-Pacific working on International Security issues. If you would like to be part of this database, please complete the brief questionnaire and email your photo.

For more details about this initiative, please contact Lucy Stevenson-Yang at stevensonyangl@apln.network.

APLN has over 150 members from 22 countries in the Asia-Pacific.
Each week we feature their latest contributions
to global and regional security debates.

See all member activities

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There’s More to Security Than Deterrence

Chung-in Moon, APLN Vice Chair, argued that the search for strategic stability on the Korean Peninsula requires devising methods of deterrence capable of minimizing the interminable cycle of the security dilemma.

North Korea Has Lost the ‘Unification Competition’

Jun Bong-geun, Professor Emeritus at Korea National Diplomatic Academy (KNDA), wrote for USIP on the implications of Kim’s surprising renunciation of Pyongyang’s policy of seeking peaceful unification with South Korea.

Why Russia’s Latest Space Weapon Is So Dangerous

Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, Director of the Centre for Security, Strategy & Technology (CSST) at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi, warned that bringing nuclear elements into space, be it a nuclear weapon or a nuclear-powered counterspace weapon, will have serious repercussions.

Nuclear Non-Proliferation and the Global South: Understanding Divergences and Commonalities

Tanvi Kulkarni, APLN Policy Fellow, discussed about the new trends occurring in the global nuclear order, with a special focus on the more recent stance of some actors from the Global South, in the latest episode of the International Spectator podcast.

Here’s What a Prabowo-Led Indonesia Could Do

Marty Natalegawa, APLN Chair and Indonesia’s former Foreign Minister, was interviewed by the Financial Review. He commented that Indonesia could lead efforts to establish frameworks for managing the geopolitical competition between China and the US.

Indonesia’s Path Between the Reefs

Dewi Fortuna Anwar, Research Professor at the Research Centre for Politics-National Research and Innovation Agency (PRP-BRIN), wrote for Foreign Affairs on the reasons why Jakarta won’t abandon its foreign policy of nonalignment.

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