In Defence of Women, Peace and Security: Resisting Dismantling and Neglect

Since 2000, the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda has represented one of the most significant advances in feminist governance within international security. Rooted in UN Security Council Resolution 1325, WPS was conceived as a transformative framework for understanding and addressing how gender shapes conflict, peacebuilding, and defence. Yet, as feminist governance more broadly comes under pressure from anti-gender movements and neoliberal rollback, WPS too finds itself at a crossroads. In April 2025, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s announcement that the Department of Defense would terminate its WPS programme – later walked back following public and legal pressure – illustrates the fragility of feminist gains in security governance. The episode also exposes a growing conflation of WPS with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. While both seek to advance gender equality, they operate on different registers: DEI pursues representational fairness within institutions; WPS carries international legal weight and seeks to transform strategic thinking itself. Two forms of pushback now threaten to erode this progress. The first is active dismantling - the deliberate undermining or politicisation of WPS as a “woke” or extraneous agenda. The second is neglect — the quiet sidelining of WPS through under-resourcing, tokenistic implementation, or bureaucratic absorption into DEI frameworks. These dynamics are visible globally, across international and national policy spaces, but the United States’ position remains particularly influential in shaping international norms and signalling political priorities. Both forms of resistance are equally damaging, stripping WPS of its transformative potential and rendering it vulnerable to political rollback. At a time when feminist governance in all its forms faces populist, technocratic, and institutional resistance, this paper calls for reclaiming WPS as both a site and instrument of feminist governance within public policy. Doing so positions WPS not only as part of a broader feminist project of reimagining security, but as integral to how policymakers understand and navigate an increasingly unstable world.