Backlash Against the Women, Peace and Security Agenda: Contesting Gender Norms

In recent years, the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda has faced mounting resistance from regressive political forces seeking to undermine its hard-won normative gains. This Open Access book offers a timely and rigorous examination of this global backlash, providing both theoretical innovation and empirical depth. Bringing together leading scholars and practitioners, the volume introduces a novel analytical framework that weaves together the concepts of backlash, counter-practices, and counter-discourses. It pioneers a deeper conceptual understanding of backlash—an often under-theorized phenomenon in feminist scholarship—and explores how resistance to gender norms is mobilized, manifested, and sustained across diverse contexts.