2024 WPS Symposium: Keynote Fireside Chat: WPS Visionaries

KEYNOTE FIRESIDE CHAT: WPS VISIONARIES
Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations; Initiator of the UNSCR 1325 as the President of the UN Security Council in 2000; Founder of the Global Movement for The Culture of Peace (GMCoP)
Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations (2002-2007) and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to UN (1996-2001), Ambassador Chowdhury has been an internationally recognized champion of women’s equality and empowerment for many decades. As the President of the Security Council in March 2000, he took the pioneering initiative for the landmark UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security, creating a crucial legacy of inclusion of women’s equality in the realm of international peace and security. He believes strongly that the National Action Plan (NAP)for the implementation of UNSCR 1325 is the best blueprint available at the country level to make progress in ensuring gender equality and women’s equal participation at all decision-making levels. He also believes that the civil society has a major role to play in the implementation of 1325 at both national and global levels.
Ambassador Chowdhury’s contributions in the sphere of peace, women’s rights and human security are vast, but among his most notable recognitions are the U Thant Peace Award, UNESCO Gandhi Gold Medal for Culture of Peace, Spirit of the UN Award, University of Massachusetts Boston Chancellor’s Medal for Global Leadership for Peace, 2018 Global Women’s Peace Award and 2020 Robert Muller Global Peace Award as United Nations Global Peace Leader. Ambassador Chowdhury is a proud feminist and fervent defender of the integral role of gender equality in making the world a better to place to live for all.
Ambassador Swanee Hunt, Chair, Inclusive Security; Founder of the Women and Public Policy Program, Harvard Kennedy School
Swanee Hunt is the founder of Harvard’s Women and Public Policy Program at the Kennedy School of Government, where she has taught for two decades. Representing President Bill Clinton as U.S. Ambassador to Austria, she hosted early negotiations to end the genocide in the Balkan states.
Her DC-based NGO, Inclusive Security, sparked the expansion of traditional foreign policy to include influential women waging peace in fragile and violent regions. In addition to hundreds of political leaders and other NGOs, she collaborates with a host of far-reaching organizations such as the UN, NATO, and AU, as well as prominent think tanks and scores of renowned universities worldwide (including Ukraine, Russia, Mexico, Tel Aviv, and Ramallah).
Her frequent appearances in and writing for major media outlets and renowned journals augment four books providing insight into women’s intervention in all stages of war. For example, Rwandan Women Rising lays out how when chaos cracked open a culture, women emerged as a radically successful stabilizing force. Her public opinion pieces stretched over decades on Afghanistan have put her in the eye of the storm.
A theologian, reformer, rancher, composer, photographer, and inductee in the U.S. Women’s Hall of Fame, Swanee’s world includes a menagerie of buffalo, yaks, cats, horses, llamas, parrots, and grandchildren.
Brigadier General Traci Kueker-Murphy, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Space Command
Brig. Gen. Traci L. Kueker-Murphy is the Deputy Director, Strategy, Plans and Policy, United States Space Command, Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado. She is responsible for developing military strategies, issuing strategic guidance, planning military campaigns and contingency operations, and formulating policy in support of Combatant Commander’s responsibilities outlined in the Unified Command Plan. Brig. Gen. Kueker-Murphy earned her commission through the Air Force Reserve Training Corps at University of Southern Illinois at Edwardsville in 1990. She joined the Air Force Reserve in 1998. She has commanded at the squadron, group and wing level, and served at Headquarters Air Force Reserve Command, Headquarters Space Operations Command, and Headquarters United States Space Force. Brig. Gen. Kueker-Murphy has also served on a Joint Air Component Coordination Element and as the Director of Space Forces for exercise Key Resolve. Prior to this assignment, Brig. Gen Kueker-Murphy was the Mobilization Assistant to the Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Operations, Cyber, and Nuclear, United States Space Force, Pentagon, Arlington, VA.