Resolution 1325 and Post-Cold War Feminist Politics

Social movement scholars credit feminist transnational advocacy networks with putting violence against women on the United Nations (UN) security agenda, as evidenced by Resolution 1325 and numerous other UN Security Council statements on gender, peace and security. Such accounts neglect the significance of superpower politics for shaping the aims of women's bureaucracies and non-governmental organizations in the UN system. This article highlights how the fall of the Soviet Union transformed the delineation of 'women's issues' at the UN and calls attention to the extent that the new focus upon 'violence against women' has been shaped by post-Cold War US global policing practices. Resolution 1325's call for gender mainstreaming of peacekeeping operations reflects the tension between feminist advocates' increased influence in security discourse and continuing reports of peacekeeper perpetrated sexual violence, abuse and exploitation.