The women, peace and security agenda : a normative framework in contestation

The Women, Peace and Security agenda has been heavily discussed by feminist International Relations scholars since the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 in October 2000. This thesis seeks to broaden the understanding of the WPS agenda and suggests understanding it as a contested normative framework in the making in international politics. The aim of this thesis is to identify the main contestations of the women, peace and security norm within the Norwegian expert community. Furthermore, this thesis also aims to answer how these contestations strengthen or weaken the agenda. The thesis is a case study of the Norwegian expert community working professionally with the WPS agenda. Eight expert actors from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, the Ministry of Defence, the Peace Research Institute, the BI Norwegian Business School, Forum for Women and Development, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom have been interviewed.M-I