This paper is concerned with the agency of women in the implementation of UNSCR 1325. How may narratives and practices produced by 1325 enable and/or restrain women’s agency in post-conflict processes towards a gender-just peace? From a critical theoretical point of departure we trace the construction of National Action Plans in the post-conflict contexts of Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina. In both cases, we tease out the discourses and practices that the implementation of the 1325 through National Action Plans have generated, as the two cases give insights into the gendered power and agency that are produced in these encounters between global norms and local dispositions. Through this work, we contribute to a theoretical discussion on agency by unpacking the illusive concept into the categories empty, scripted and authentic agency, thus loading it with analytical power. We conclude that the discourse inherent in the resolution perpetuates gender dynamics that precast a scripted agency and that the resolution’s inherent promise of participation and transformation is only partly fulfilled. Thus the Women Peace and Security Agenda’s transformative potential has not yet been fully realised.
