Sammendrag:

The Women, Peace and Security resolutions promotes norms along the pillars of participation, protection, prevention and recovery and relief. The norms seek to, among other things, improve women’s participation in conflict management, strengthen the protection of women’s rights and bodies in conflict and post-conflict situations and promote the use of a gender perspective when dealing with conflict and post-conflict reconstruction. However, it is not always clear what this means in practice. This thesis takes as its point of departure that the Women, Peace and Security norms are dynamic processes and a work in progress. Practitioners shape and fill the norms with content as they work to realise the norms in different contexts and situations. Military organisations play an important role in the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security norms, as they are important actors in questions related to security and conflict management. To better understand how the Women, Peace and Security norms are interpreted and put into practice by military practitioners in Norway, this thesis examines how male officers – as holders of formal and informal power and gatekeepers to the military organisation – understand and use these norms. It also examines the identity construction involved on the officers’ discourse on Women, Peace and Security, as this highlights important dimensions of the officers’ understanding and use of the norms. I find that the officers, in many regards, have an instrumental understanding and use of the Women, Peace and Security norms, concentrating on how the norms can contribute to improve the Norwegian Armed Forces’ ability to solve the mission. The interviews also suggest that the officers struggle to find the norms’ relevance and meaning in many contexts and situations. Moreover, I find examples of identity constructions where the Women, Peace and Security norms are considered a natural part of the Norwegian Self’s identity, as opposed to the Other, which in many instances has a different culture or attitude with regards to these norms. In the interview material, the Women, Peace and Security norms seem to be easier to understand and is perceived as more relevant to use in the meeting with the Other, typically in international operations where the Norwegian Armed Forces operate in a different cultural setting, meet different gender roles and interact with people living in the area of operation.