The impact of UN Security Council resolution 2242 in Australia, the UK and Sweden

The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda is anchored in ten United Nations Security Council resolutions addressing gender equality and women’s rights in peace and security governance. The codification of the WPS agenda in the adopted resolutions establishes standards of practice to be adopted by UN member states and entities to prioritise women’s role as agents in peace and security settings and respond to women’s specific security needs. This research explores the influence of UN Security Council resolution 2242, adopted by the Council in 2015, particularly the provisions related to counter-terrorism and preventing and countering violent extremism (CT and P/CVE). Drawing on analysis of policy documents and interview data from the United Kingdom, Australia, and Sweden, the article argues that resolution 2242 is driving a degree of engagement, if not alignment, between WPS and CT and P/CVE. Further, the important differences between the operationalisation of the norms embedded in the resolution in the case study countries suggest that it would be fruitful for WPS analysts to engage in further research about how norm diffusion interacts with policy development.