Abstract
This comment reflects on how the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda has been translated into policy and put into practice by the European Union and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although the WPS agenda has enabled many gains by women peacebuilders, this comment identifies important challenges from these two very different contexts. First, situating WPS policy areas within a broader feminist political economy analysis demonstrates how little influence the WPS agenda has across government. Second, the WPS agenda is being (mis)used to promote heteronormative, patriarchal understanding of ‘gender’, stripped of any power dynamics and excluding any gender identities that do not conform. The result, then, is that WPS policies and practice are adrift in the patriarchal policy mainstream.
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Notes
They are: Security Council Resolutions 1325 (2000); 1820 (2009); 1888 (2009); 1889 (2010); 1960 (2011); 2106 (2013); 2122 (2013) and 2242 (2015).
For discussion of how the term ‘gender’ has become “defanged” to exclude power dynamics and limited only to the gender identities of heterosexual men and women in UN circles see Charlesworth (2005, 17).
This section draws on Davis (2017).
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The author would like to thank Maria Grahn Farley, Andrew Lane and Sari Kouvo for helpful comments on an earlier draft.
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Davis, L. Women Peace and Security: Adrift in Policy and Practice. Fem Leg Stud 27, 95–107 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10691-018-9381-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10691-018-9381-4