ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the long view and examines how women’s rights and latterly gender issues have been elevated to form part of certain states’ foreign policy goals. It provides an overview of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, first elevated onto the global agenda through the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 in 2000. The chapter explores critically interrogates the passage of WPS through the Security Council to help explain some of the contradictions inherent within the agenda. The WPS agenda should be understood as more than the sum of the Security Council Resolutions given the role civil society continues to have in supporting its implementation at the national and international level. The passage of the WPS Resolutions through the Security Council has not always followed the same pattern as UNSCR 1325. North Atlantic Treaty Organization has been the most visible among the European security institutions in its implementation of the WPS agenda.
