The futures past of the Women, Peace and Security agenda

Bibliographic Data

ID4759101
AuthorsPaul Kirby (0000-0002-6917-563X, Lecturer in International Security in the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex, where he teaches on gender violence and the politics of war.), Laura J Shepherd (0000-0003-3069-8596, Associate Professor of International Relations at the School of Social Sciences at University of New South Wales; Australia)
Year2016
Volume92
Issue2
Pages373-392
Publication date2016-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-5850 • E-ISSN: 1468-2346
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/1468-2346.12549
OpenAlexW2288666016
LanguageEN
Citations received84
References cited11

The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda has developed at the United Nations over the course of the past 15 years, and there have been critical engagements with it for nearly as long. In this article, we first take stock of the operationalization of the WPS agenda, reviewing its implementation across a number of sectors. In the second section, we expose the tensions that have marked the WPS agenda from the start. With others, we argue that there has been a narrowing of the agenda's original scope, reducing it to the traditional politics of security rather than reimagining what security means. We highlight this reduction primarily through an analysis of the tension between the ‘participation’ and ‘protection’ pillars of the agenda. Further, we argue that the WPS agenda faces a current challenge in terms of the actors entrusted with it. Although in some ways involving civil society, the consolidations and implementation of WPS principles at the national and international levels have become increasingly state-centric. Third, we imagine some possible futures of the agenda, from a trajectory characterized by increasing marginalization or even irrelevance, to new avenues like the emergent, albeit tentative, ‘Men, Peace and Security’ agenda. We close with an argument for a revival of the WPS agenda beyond a fixation on states, beyond a narrow heteronormative or essentialist focus on the ‘Women’ of the WPS resolutions, and moving towards the radical reimagining of security as peace that inspired the original architects of these important resolutions

Argument (complex analysis) · Economics · Epistemology · Futures contract · Human security · Law and economics · Operationalization · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Security interest · Security studies · Sociology · State (computer science) · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Law · Public Administration

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