National Action Plans on Women, Peace and Security as Tools of Foreign Policy: Reconsidering Gender Security in the West

Security Council resolution 1325 resulted from a grassroots alliance between feminist activists, women's groups, civil society and international organisations, and a few States that supported the idea of a resolution on women, peace and security (WPS). This article uses a postcolonial feminist lens to argue that the UN WPS framework has since become a vehicle for Western States to pursue their national interests abroad. The mistaken assumption that gender security has been achieved in the West reflects racialised, imperialistic narratives, inscribed in the UN's WPS resolutions, that situate Western States as benevolent saviours of women in the conflict-ridden and poverty-stricken Global South. The article illustrates that national action plans produced by Western liberal States have been reduced to foreign policy tools. It recommends that the scope of the UN's WPS resolutions be expanded to make them relevant to vulnerable women who are experiencing insecurity and exclusion in the West.