Women, Peace, and Security in the Middle East: An Agenda of Empty Promises?

I put the spotlight on the global Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda, launched in October 2000 by the UN’s Security Council in the form of Resolution 1325, to secure women’s physical security and their participation in peacebuilding and post-reconstruction activities. Framing the discussion are theories of norm and policy diffusion through intergovernmental organizations and treaty ratification, and of the effects of a hierarchical world-system characterized by inequalities, militarized masculinities, and new rivalries. In reviewing the literature on UNSCR 1325 and its attendant National Action Plans (NAPs), I examine the NAPs that the Arab League and several MENA states have adopted, assessing strengths and weaknesses of the documents and finding them largely aspirational and symbolic. I also draw attention to those states in the region that have not adopted a NAP. I conclude that the WPS agenda has considerable potential for the MENA region and elsewhere but is undermined by the international system’s growing militarization, conflicts, and wars, preventing adoption of the WPS agenda and implementation of robust NAPs in the MENA region.