Conclusion of Curiosity: Questions for Further Analysis and Research

For as many questions as it answered, our research also uncovered new ones that we invite the community to take up and explore. Much of our research was conducted before the 2016 Election. Today, we face a dramatically different national security policy environment with new players, ever-higher stakes, and the need to sustain conversations about gender and security around policymaking tables and on front pages. Below, please find a few of these queries. 

What can the community learn about how academic research and constructs make their way into the policy bloodstream? What lessons are available from examples such as democratic peace theory?

How are we harvesting the lessons of WPS in the Obama Administration across various agencies?
How can we enhance security establishment members’ interest in empowerment or full participation as goals of security policy?

Are the WPS agenda and the research behind it being picked up and learned by next generations, in academic and training settings?

How will the media environment change under the new U.S. administration, and what do these changes mean for the way that advocates, journalists, and editors should pitch, report and edit stories that discuss gender and security? 

Given the reality that policymaker media consumption habits can lead to significant gaps and distortions, how should advocates refocus their own media and messaging efforts to help identify and rectify those gaps? 

Download – Conclusion of Curiosity: Questions for Further Analysis and Research