This episode is an introduction to the Women Peace and Security agenda and National Action Plans and looks at the future of the UK’s Women, Peace and Security Policy in the context of the launch of their new NAP.

Our guests for this episode's conversation are Dr Paul Kirby and Dr Hannah Wright, both in the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary University of London.

Hannah is an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow in Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary University of London, where her research focuses on gender, race and class in the UK national security policymaking community. She previously worked at the LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security, and before that as a gender adviser at (GAPS member organisation) Saferworld, an international peacebuilding NGO. She's been involved in research and advocacy on the UK's approach to women, peace and security since 2009.

Gender, Justice and Security Hub, and a Visiting Fellow at the LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security, where he previously worked. Paul’s three current areas of focus are the politics of the Women, Peace and Security agenda; the history of feminist engagements with foreign policy and statecraft; and the emerging governance of masculinity in global politics. He is a co-editor with Soumita Bass and Laura Shepherd of New Directions in Women, Peace and Security and has recently published on the failure of WPS on Europe’s borders and the complexity of the WPS policy ecosystem. Governing the Feminist Peace: Vitality and Failure in the WPS Agenda, a book co-authored with Laura Shepherd, will be published later this year by Columbia University Press.

Hannah and Paul are here to help us introduce the WPS agenda and National Action Plans, as well as talk about their paper ‘The Future of the UK’s Women, Peace and Security Policy’ which they wrote with Aisling Swaine and was published by the LSE Center for WPS.

You can find out more about GAPS’ work and our future plans on our Twitter @GAPS_Network and by signing up to our monthly newsletter on our website. You can contact us at info@gaps-uk.org

This podcast is made through the support of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs through their funding of the LEAP4Peace Consortium, which GAPS is a member of.

This podcast is hosted by Eva Tabbasam, and it is written, produced and edited by Florence Waller – Carr and supported by the GAPS Team. Our thanks also to Andrew O’Connor at Saferworld for the technical support, and to Jimena Duran at NIMD who are the Consortium lead for LEAP4Peace.

The music used in this podcast was produced by Tribe of Noise PRO.