ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda and provides some background to the study presented here. We explain that the WPS agenda is a radical and transformative political agenda embedded in structures of liberal governance that have mitigated against its full and successful implementation in many ways. Further, and more relevant to the research at hand, at the domestic level, the agenda is operationalised in the context of neoliberal economic governance, often in tandem with austerity measures, and increasingly authoritarian and politically conservative governments. Economically and politically, we see the diminution of resource available to support the agenda. And yet over the last two decades we have witnessed the diversification and pluralisation of the agenda, its continued development (albeit not always in a singular, unified direction), and many successes large and small. Many of these successes, and much of the political energy around the agenda, are attributed to intense support from civil society organisations. This chapter introduces the questions that animate our investigation, and outlines the methodology of our research, concluding with a brief overview of the book.
