This research engages with debates about globalizing IR and studies of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Agenda established by the UN in the year of 2000. There have for many years been a lot of literature that is focused on the Agenda in the West using theories which are also established in the same region. This thesis therefore wants to contribute by looking at the WPS Agenda outside the West. This study does so by looking at the Southeast Asian countries of Timor Leste, Indonesia, and the Philippines with a normative investigation. This study adopts questions of how the Southeast Asian region has accepted norms and ideas from the resolution into their own National Action Plans (NAPs) and wants to investigate how these plans conform and differ from the original WPS Agenda. What this thesis finds are a lacking adoption and acceptance of norms in the Philippine, Indonesia, and Timor Leste National Action Plan (NAP). By conducting a conventional content analysis and using the norm-life cycle as a theoretical model this thesis concludes that there are some varying levels of norm acceptance and that the three countries are yet to fully implement the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda (WPS). What the findings also presents is that the local context and culture of a particular country is very important in determining the extent of adoption to international norms and concepts such as those proposed in the WPS Agenda. This means that we need to globalize the study of norms within IR, and we cannot assume that all countries will adopt norms in the same way, or in the same way as the Western states. Based on these findings the research has a small contribution to the larger globalization of IR, Global Political Economy, and studies of the WPS Agenda in the Southeast Asian countries. This thesis recommends future research of other agendas and for additional regions to enhance further knowledge within the normative field of research.

Even after the introduction of the UNSCR 1325 and subsequent resolutions, women’s leadership in the context of the WPS Agenda remains very low, despite the clear stance of the UN towards a support of an increased participation of women in peace and security processes. The aim of this thesis is to specifically address women’s leadership in the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF) in the framework of peacekeeping operations, looking at the way the gender perspective is applied in the SAF through the introduction of the Handbok Gender, adopted in 2016. Since the focus of this research is on women, the theoretical perspective utilised as reference point is feminism and specifically a feminist constructivist approach with an institutional focus. Mixed research methods have been applied in order to collect the data, while the main centre of attention of this project has been a critical discourse analysis of the mentioned gender policy. Sweden has been chosen as case study because of the relevance of its singular feminist policies (Wallström’s statement that Sweden is pursuing a feminist foreign policy is a clear example), nevertheless the conclusions appear to be quite contradictory because even in a country which officially identifies as feminist women’s leadership in peacekeeping operations is very low.

Climate change can exacerbate violent conflict, create risks to human security, and prevent conflict recovery and peacebuilding in different contexts. Climate change nor conflict is rarely fair and have been argued to have different impacts on gender.In 2000, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1325 on ‘Women, Peace and Security’ which promoted the advancement of women’s position in national agendas of peace and security. It has become increasingly clear that the climate-gender-conflict nexus is critical to both peacebuilding efforts and developing strong communities resilient to climate change impacts. While previous research on the nexus has been dominated by statistical quantitative studies, this seeks to contribute to qualitative research by adopting a qualitative content analysis. Of concern for this study is the implication of vulnerabilities and capacities in National Action Plans that support the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda. Leaning on the CAV Analytical Framework by March et al. 1999, vulnerabilities and capacities have been identified along different categories that focus on different dimensions of power dynamics. The study finds that climate change has primarily been recognized as contributing to the intensification and exacerbation of conflicts over access to natural resources, which in turn has caused vulnerabilities to become greater within all categories of the analysis. Other findings point to a major focus on women's vulnerabilities above those of men, and lastly how implementing bodies have developed promising methods for successful implementation.

This paper takes its point of departure in the skewed attention towards the ‘protection’ of women rather than the ‘participation’ of women when talking about ‘Women, Peace &Security’ (WPS) in the UN Security Council. Given the centrality of Sweden, as the first country in the world with a feminist foreign policy, this thesis fills a gap in the current research as it investigates whether this skewed attention was reflected during Sweden’s time as a non-permanent member in the UNSC 2017-2018 or not. A quantitative content analysis of 318 Swedish statements in the UNSC 2017-2018 conducted in this paper shows an overall result where Sweden mentions women in the context of participation more frequently than protection. This outcome is further explained by three Government Officials active during Sweden’s time in the UNSC, as resulting from the Swedish strategy and the feminist foreign policy. Furthermore, the results of this study indicate a change in how frequently Sweden refers to participation over protection between 2017 and 2018; the strategy of attaching larger focus to participation is significantly clearer the second year. The interviewees explain that this was due to the increased experience in the UNSC and increased credibility for Sweden among the other member states. The current stage of the conflict or peacekeeping operation in question, i.e. in the country of discussion in the UNSC, was also considered as a large part of the strategy, suggesting the nature of the conflict to be of importance for the results and hence relevant to analyze in future research on the attention payed to participation versus protection in the UNSC.

Twenty years has passed since the adopted of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, which aims to strengthen the gender perspective in conflict settings as well as address inequalities related to sexually gender-based violence. Still, the concrete impact it has had on sexual violence in armed conflict, is questioned. Additionally, it is questioned if it reaches the grassroot level in armed conflict settings. Thus, this study has examined what factors that may have hindered a successful implementation on a grassroot level in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. Furthermore, it has examined the concrete impact on the efforts against sexual violence in these areas. This was done by firstly, conducting a policy analysis using the “What’s the Problem Represented to be?” approach to identify underlying problematics within the resolution. Additionally, semi-structed interviews were conducted with respondents having experience in working with the resolution and/or sexual violence in armed conflict. The results showed, among other things, that the complex construction of the resolution have been a hindering factor for a successful implementation. Additionally, the concrete change for the efforts against sexual violence in conflict settings is lacking. However, the empowerment that the resolution has provided to those working with these issues, is still an important impact.