Assessing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda from an intersectional perspective

Since its launch in 2000, the Women, Peace and Security Agenda has been a prominent project aimed at transforming practices and discourses in the field of international security, advocating the inclusion of women as makers as well as recipients of policies and initiatives aimed at preventing conflict and restoring peace. During the last fifteen years, from the academic debate as well as from the civil society the same WPS has been criticised for its poor capacity to escape the dichotomous mindset women/men and to overcome an essentialised understanding of women. The paper will analyse the three main intersectional challenges for the WPS, envisaging possible solutions for a fruitful incorporation of intersectional instances in the WPS norms lab and addressing the main obstacles that hamper the ability of the Agenda to evolve in an intersectional sense.