University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
October 23–24, 2025

The 2024 Quad Leaders’ Summit marked a pivotal shift from earlier disaster-response cooperation toward a broader agenda focused on delivering public goods to Indo-Pacific partners, especially in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. Summit initiatives include global health, humanitarian assistance, maritime security, quality infrastructure, emerging technology, clean energy, cybersecurity, disinformation, people-to-people ties, space, and counterterrorism.

A key outcome of the July 2024 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Tokyo was the Quad’s collective commitment to implementing the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda. This includes advancing women’s and girls’ wellbeing, safety, and economic empowerment, and strengthening their role in decision-making related to conflict prevention. Unlike previous approaches that responded to crises, this represents a proactive regional strategy. It also underscores the need to embed gender perspectives not only in programming but in the governance and diplomacy of the Quad itself. As central partners in this evolving regional framework, the Quad countries are uniquely positioned to lead in integrating inclusive, equitable approaches to Indo-Pacific cooperation.

Despite the Quad’s commitment to including women’s and girls’ perspectives in diplomacy and regional programs, the integration of gender remains insufficiently examined and operationalized. This gap represents both a problem and an opportunity: to critically assess how gender and women’s participation influence Quad governance, policy priorities, and program outcomes, and to provide actionable insights that strengthen these efforts across member states and regional partners.

To address these research gaps, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Center for Indo-Pacific Affairs hosted a two-day workshop on Women, Peace, and Security in the Quad’s Commitment to a Free and Open Indo-Pacific. The workshop was supported by funding from the Japan Foundation, and held in collaboration with our partner, the Institute for Gender Studies at Ochanomizu National Women’s University. This workshop brought together scholars and practitioners from, working in, or with expertise on Quad countries to analyze how women, women’s perspectives, and gender: 1) are extant in the Quad/Quad countries as an institution as formal and informal institutional rules and representation, 2) inform the Quad’s policy priorities and programmatic decisions, and 3) are implicated in Quad deliverables.

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Summary of Conference Proceedings

Welcome Remarks

Peter Arnade, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Opening Keynote Address

Where are the Women in Diplomacy? On the Invisibility of Women in Cold War Asia
Naoko Shimazu, University of Tokyo

Introduction to the Project

WPS National Action Plans and Indo-Pacific Strategies: Gender Mainstreaming or Flowing Through the Cracks?
Petrice Flowers, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Panel 1: Conceptualizing Women, Peace, and Security in the Indo-Pacific

• From Rhetoric to Resourcing: Feminist Financing and the Quad’s WPS Commitments
  Linh Dieu Nong, International Women’s Development Agency
• The Quad as a Minilateral Hub of Security Cooperation
  Ayako Kobayashi, Sophia University

Discussants: Marialaura De Angelis, Pacific Forum and Track2Asia; and Hisako Motoyama, Ochanomizu University

Panel 2: WPS and Workplace Representation

• Women at the Coalface: From India’s Coal Belt to a Quad Framework for Gendered Just Transitions
  Parul Bakshi, Observer Research Foundation Middle East
• National Universities and Women’s Leadership in Japan: Nurturing Female Leaders from Nagasaki to Fly to the World
  Tomoko Kiyota, Nagasaki University

Discussants: Liv Coleman, University of Tampa; and Subhashni Raj, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Panel 3: Natural Disasters and Climate Security

• Women and Human Security in Disasters
  Junko Otani, University of Osaka
• Gender and Climate Security in the Pacific: Reflections on Climate Change in Urban Settlements
  Siobhan McDonnell, Australian National University
• Strengthening Women’s Role in Climate Security and Peacebuilding in Oceania
  Tammy Tabe, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Discussants: Ming Li Yong, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa; and Sylvia Frain, Filmmaker and Researcher

Panel 4: Women and Technology

• Leveling Up: How Japan’s Promotion of Women in the Digital Economy Can Improve Its Women, Peace, and Security Agenda
  Liv Coleman, University of Tampa
• Quad 2.0: Mainstreaming Women, Peace and Security in Indo-Pacific Cyber Governance
  Kirthi Jayakumar, Civitatem Resolutions

Discussants: Tomoko Kiyota, Nagasaki University; and Parul Bakshi, Observer Research Foundation Middle East

Panel 5: Gendered Inputs and Outputs in Foreign Policy

• Building a New Masculinity: “Universal Values” and Gender in the Transformation of the Security Policy of Japan
  Hisako Motoyama, Ochanomizu University
• Investing in Women, Securing the Future: Japan’s ‘Human Security’ Policy Innovations in the Indo-Pacific in the Context of QUAD Health Diplomacy
  Kathryn Ibata-Arens, Ritsumeikan University
• From Margins to Mainstream: Indian Women in Disarmament Debate and Diplomacy
  Titli Basu, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Discussants: Carolyn M. Stephenson, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa; and Siobhan McDonnell, Australian National University

Panel 6: Local Agency

• Story Sovereignty as Creative Diplomacy: Women, Peace, and Security from the ‘Forward Edge’ of the Indo-Pacific
  Sylvia Frain, Filmmaker and Researcher
• Cultivating Resilience: Community Gardening in a Land-Scarce Urban Environment
  Subhashni Raj, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Discussants: Linh Dieu Nong, International Women’s Development Agency; and Kathryn Ibata-Arens, Ritsumeikan University

Concluding Remarks

Petrice Flowers, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa