Gender and the UN's Women, Peace and Security agenda

The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda at the United Nations is the architecture through which the gendered impacts of war, violence, and security practices are governed. In this chapter, the authors aim to treat the WPS agenda as an institution, in the broadest sense of it being a set of rules or practices that structure and inform interaction in the realm of peace and security. The WPS agenda as an institution is also articulated within and in relation to other institutions at the international, regional, national, and local levels. The authors aim to use this structure to organize overview of gender and the UN's WPS agenda. They explore the international dimension, outlining the gendered and institutional politics of the WPS agenda at the United Nations itself. The authors trace the support of and resistance to the WPS agenda as an institution at the regional level, with a specific focus on the Asia Pacific region.