Situating the Gender Mainstreaming Norm in Regional Organisations: Comparing the Incorporation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 in the EU and OSCE

In October 2000, the United Nations (UN) Security Council adopted Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. In addition to states, the resolution also calls on regional organizations to mainstream gender into all stages of all peacekeeping operations. Drawing on feminist institutionalism and a norm translation perspective, we argue that networks of norm entrepreneurs played an important role with respect to the incorporation of the resolution into the security policies of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the European Union (EU). The varying institutional contexts that the entrepreneurs faced in the two organizations nevertheless affected what they were able to accomplish and how, therefore in turn, the EU and the OSCE institutionalized UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and the accompanying norms.