The impact of UN Security Council resolution 2242 in Australia, the UK and Sweden

ABSTRACT

The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda is anchored in ten United Nations Security Council resolutions addressing gender equality and women’s rights in peace and security governance. The codification of the WPS agenda in the adopted resolutions establishes standards of practice to be adopted by UN member states and entities to prioritise women’s role as agents in peace and security settings and respond to women’s specific security needs. This research explores the influence of UN Security Council resolution 2242, adopted by the Council in 2015, particularly the provisions related to counter-terrorism and preventing and countering violent extremism (CT and P/CVE). Drawing on analysis of policy documents and interview data from the United Kingdom, Australia, and Sweden, the article argues that resolution 2242 is driving a degree of engagement, if not alignment, between WPS and CT and P/CVE. Further, the important differences between the operationalisation of the norms embedded in the resolution in the case study countries suggest that it would be fruitful for WPS analysts to engage in further research about how norm diffusion interacts with policy development.

KEYWORDS:

• WPS agenda
• 2242
• CVE
• terrorism
• extremism
• norms
• policy

Acknowledgements

This research was enabled by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT170100037) and the University of Sydney provided additional funding towards the research programme. We would also like to acknowledge the thoughtful and constructive comments provided by anonymous reviewers, which, along with guidance from the editors, encouraged revisions that much improved the argument and analysis. Finally, we are grateful to all research participants who generously shared their time and expertise and without whom this research would not have been possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 The resolutions, with years of adoption, are: UNSCR 1325 (2000); UNSCR 1820 (2008); UNSCR 1888 (2009); UNSCR 1889 (2009); UNSCR 1960 (2010); UNSCR 2106 (2013); UNSCR 2122 (2013); UNSCR 2242 (2015); UNSCR 2467 (2019); and UNSCR 2493 (2019).

2 The early literature on norms in world politics is too extensive to survey here, but it is important to acknowledge certain key influences on our work in this section (inter alia: Goertz and Diehl 1992; Finnemore 1993, 1996a, 1996b; Cortell and Davis 1996; Jepperson, Wendt, and Katzenstein 1996; Legro 1997; Keck and Sikkink 1998; Checkel 1999; Risse 1999; Risse and Sikkink 1999; Risse, Ropp, and Sikkink 1999; Towns 2010).

3 Literature on the contestation of norms is burgeoning (see, inter alia, Wiener 2004, 2008, 2018; Wiener and Puetter 2009; Niemann and Schillinger 2017; Deitelhoff and Zimmermann 2019). The emergence of ‘norm antipreneurs’ as a concept is further evidence of scholarly attention being paid to the dynamics of contestation (Bloomfield and Scott 2017).

4 Zwingel explains her use of translation thus: ‘I use the term “translation” here instead of “diffusion” because translation implies that differently contextualized norms may be translated into another realm, for example, from global to national or local to national, whereas diffusion assumes a one-way influence from global to non-global. … I use the term “norm translation” here to allow different avenues of cross-cultural encounters and transmissions of meaning, yet the term also includes unevenness – mutual enrichment is possible as much as subordination’ (Zwingel 2012, 124).

5 For one recent and sophisticated analysis of such processes, see Jacqui True and Antje Wiener’s analysis of state rhetoric on the WPS agenda (True and Wiener 2019).

6 This article draws on what we understand to be the approval-ready draft of the Australian NAP, but we note that it is a draft and quotations from the document may require updating prior to publication.

7 We are grateful to the anonymous reviewer who encouraged us to comment explicitly on this tension.

8 There is some overlap between the nine focus countries (Afghanistan, Burma [Myanmar], DRC, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Syria) and the top ten country recipients of UK development assistance (in order of budgetary commitment FY2020/21: Ethiopia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Yemen, Tanzania, Nepal, Somalia, Myanmar, and Afghanistan; see United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office 2021), but nowhere near total congruence, which suggests that factors other than raw national interest are at work in setting priorities for WPS engagement.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Australian Research Council: [Grant Number FT170100037].

Notes on contributors

Doris Asante

Doris Asante is a PhD candidate in Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney. Her research explores the relationship between CSOs and states in the national implementation of UNSCR 2242. Email: [email protected].

Yasmin Chilmeran

Yasmin Chilmeran completed her PhD in 2020 at Monash University's Centre for Gender, Peace and Security, working on the Australian Research Council Linkage Project ‘Towards Inclusive Peace’. Her doctoral research focused on women's participation in peacebuilding in post-2003 Iraq, paying close attention to the role of international gender norms, including the Women, Peace and Security agenda. Email: [email protected].

Laura J. Shepherd

Laura J. Shepherd is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and Professor of International Relations at the University of Sydney. She is also co-Director of the Methodological Innovation research stream within the UKRI GCRF Gender, Justice and Security Hub. Her primary field of research relates to the development and implementation of the WPS agenda. Email: [email protected].

Zoe Tiller

Zoe Tiller is a foreign policy practitioner with more than fourteen years’ experience in international security and diplomacy, with a focus on gender equality. Most recently she has co-led Australian Government humanitarian policy and programmes in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Jordan. She has a Masters in International Security from France’s leading political science institution, Sciences Po in Paris, and Bachelors in Arts and Commerce from Melbourne University. Email: [email protected].