Hypocrisy and "Friction" in International Organizations : The Case of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000)

Abstract

The complexity of understanding the implementation of gender issues across various institutionalized levels is becoming increasingly important for the UN, and for the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) in particular. This thesis looks at the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) in DPKO as a global process through a method inspired by multi-sited ethnography. While it is not a thesis about the shortcomings of implementing Resolution 1325 in DPKO, it concerns the dynamics that affect such an implementation process. Studying policy and process across three levels of analysis allows for an approach that is able to grasp interaction, dynamics, and interplay between headquarters, the field mission, and the member state. I use the theoretical framework of organized hypocrisy to explain the outcomes of the dynamics and interplay between the levels of analysis, in order to highlight how International Organizations operate in, and are affected by, a complex external environment, and how their actions are a result of this. This does not mean that DPKO intentionally uses hypocrisy to avoid gender issues; rather I use the theories of hypocrisy to explain dynamics that affect the implementation process. In my understanding of the global aspect of the process of implementing Resolution 1325 across the levels of analysis, I apply the concept of “friction”. “Friction” is understood as encounters and interaction between the levels of analysis that affect and inform the issues in the “women, peace and security” agenda as these travel across geographical and conceptual spaces. By taking this approach to the issues of “women, peace and security” in DPKO I place these issues within a larger context, allowing for the study of Resolution 1325 as a case and not as an isolated process or event.