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Abstract
After two decades of effort to embed Women, Peace, and Security (WPS), why and how did the agenda fail to transform patriarchal gendered structures and prevent the regression of women's rights and security in Afghanistan? To address this question, the paper investigates how the WPS agenda was conceptualized and operationalized in Afghanistan. We apply Kandiyoti's concept of patriarchal bargains to analyze multi-level power dynamics across four peace and conflict phases between 2001 and 2022, drawing from primary and secondary sources, including interviews with women leaders and key experts. While 20 years of engagement could not be expected to transform the country's conservative gender order, we argue that WPS efforts lacked a grounded understanding of the gendered constraints in a conflict transition as well as a political strategy for achieving its goals. While the case of Afghanistan is unique, it is nonetheless highly relevant to other settings making significant investments in WPS. For advancing WPS, the paper suggests that the international normative framework must be connected to local voices that understand the context-specific, patriarchal power dynamics and how to bargain with them to achieve outcomes and gains for women's security and rights.