Norm Entrepreneurs for Regional Security: Indonesia, WPS, and ASEAN Diplomacy

Abstract

More than two decades after the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda remains contested terrain where global norms meet the complexities of regional and domestic politics. This article examines Indonesia's dual role as a norm entrepreneur in the WPS field: domestically, through the iterative development of its National Action Plan on Protection and Empowerment of Women and Children in Social Conflict (RAN P3AKS), and regionally, through its diplomatic leadership in shaping the ASEAN Regional Plan of Action on Women, Peace and Security (RPA WPS, 2022). Drawing on qualitative document analysis, process tracing, and comparative data from ASEAN member states, the study argues that Indonesia's norm entrepreneurship has been structurally bifurcated — ambitious and visible at the international level, yet persistently constrained domestically by patriarchal institutional cultures, resource deficits, and coordination gaps. The analysis situates this bifurcation within Finnemore and Sikkink's norm life cycle and Acharya's framework of norm localization, demonstrating that civil society organizations have been indispensable but structurally limited norm entrepreneurs within Indonesia's WPS architecture. The article contributes to scholarship on norm diffusion in Southeast Asia and offers policy-relevant insights on the conditions under which regional WPS diplomacy translates — or fails to translate — into substantive domestic change.