Prospects for Gender Equality in Peace and Security Policymaking: The Potential of the United Nations’ Women, Peace and Security Agenda

Guided by feminist, grounded methodologies, this thesis asks: ‘How far and in what ways has the concept of gender equality diffused within the United Nations’ Women, Peace and Security agenda and in regional and national-level politics?’ Using constructivist frameworks of norm diffusion and critical theories of norm translation, I trace the concept of gender equality from the global level of the UN policymaking, through the regional security politics of the Asia Pacific, to national-level implementation strategies in the two nested case studies of Australia and the Philippines. This investigation draws from interviews with 66 experts and a detailed policy analysis.