Creating Cinderella? The Unintended Consequences of the Women Peace and Security Agenda for EU's Mediation Architecture

Citation:

Haastrup, Toni. 2018. “Creating Cinderella? The Unintended Consequences of the Women Peace and Security Agenda for EU’s Mediation Architecture.” International Negotiation 23 (2): 218–37.

Author: Toni Haastrup

Abstract:

In 2000, the United Nations (UN) launched the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda by adopting Security Council Resolution 1325. The agenda, among other things, called for the greater inclusion of women in peace negotiation practices and structures. While the European Union (EU) has made commitments to implementing the WPS agenda, the literature has not yet captured the institutional dynamics of the EU as it seeks to translate the WPS agenda into reality. This article takes stock of this hitherto excluded area of research. It argues that mediation is the ‘Cinderella’ of the EU’s peace and security institution because it has been ignored as a site for the implementation of the WPS agenda with important implications. Using a feminist institutionalist framework, the article shows the ways in which institutional practices of change aimed at including the new perspectives prompted by the WPS agenda lead to unintended gendered consequences.

Keywords: WPS agenda, external relations, EU, UNSCR 1325, mediation, feminist institutionalism

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, Peace and Security, International Organizations, Peacebuilding, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325

Year: 2018