In June 2016, Sweden was elected in the UN
General Assembly to become a UN Security Council (UNSC) member for the 2017–18
period. Progressing Women, Peace and Security (WPS) was explicitly proclaimed
as part of its main strategy. In this decision, Sweden followed an
international trend as WPS had increasingly become a proclaimed part of many
elected members’ (so called E10s) interests. In research, however, there still is
little systematized knowledge on E10s influence on UNSC outcomes in general and
on WPS in particular.
This paper provides a
starting point for a structured study of E10 strategies, the conditions of the
UNSC, and how to understand and measure outcomes. To illustrate the usage of
this framework and method, we apply these to the Sweden’s term (2017-18) utilizing
a novel dataset on WPS language in resolutions, and qualitative empirical
material from 30 semi-structured interviews (250 recorded hours) with
representatives of Sweden and other members of the Council, UN officials and
civil society advocates of WPS. Through
this, the paper demonstrates the possibilities for increasing knowledge of how an E10 can contribute to WPS progress
and for explaining the efficacy of the power of the elected 10, opening
up new avenues for future research.
