Gender, Peace and Security ─ Implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1325

This volume presents systematic empirical research on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (UNSCR 1325), increasing our understanding of the three themes of participation, protection and gender mainstreaming.

How should we understand women’s participation in peace processes and in peace operations? And what forms of gendered security dynamics are present in armed conflict and international interventions? These questions represent central themes of protection and participation that the international community has to address in order to implement UNSCR 1325. Thus far, the implementation has often employed varying approaches related to gender mainstreaming, a third theme of the resolution. Yet, there is a dearth of systematic data which until recently has restricted the ability of researchers to evaluate the progress in implementation and impact of UNSCR 1325.

By engaging with both empirics and critical theory, the authors of this edited volume make important contributions to the gender, peace and security agenda. They identify some of the problems of implementing UNSC 1325, including the complex relationships between gender balancing and gender mainstreaming as well as between participation and protection. Many of the chapters are focused on operational aspects of UNSCR 1325 and empirical data that can inform best practices, but all also engage with the theoretical underpinnings of UNSCR 1325 and seek to communicate with related fields by bringing forth central debates on more fundamental challenges to the development of knowledge in the fields of gender, peace and security. This work thereby offers both a sobering assessment of progress of implementation and insights into how to advance our understanding through systematic research. Most notably, the text suggests that UNSCR 1325 has only been sparsely and inconsistently implemented due to lack of political pressure and resource scarcity. Moreover, it identifies that there is limited insight of the impact that prescribed policies of gender mainstreaming might have. In fact, often ignoring the context in which policies are implemented leads to adverse outcomes.

This book will be of much interest to students of gender studies, peace and conflict studies, security studies and IR in general.