That issue of roles and responsibilities remains central to our consideration...

That issue of roles and responsibilities remains central to our consideration today. It is imperative that the duality of women's situation — as both victims and actors — be fully recognized. Men have always inhabited those two spaces simultaneously — as victims and victors, waging the wars and authoring the peace. Women have largely been imprisoned in the victim role, as the collateral damage of war and, if present at all, a kind of add-on at the peace table. Resolution 1325 (2000), which has been on the books for nine years, is trying to overthrow the patterns of centuries. The story recurs again and again, with the fundamentals almost always the same. Men who have been in the front line of conflict feel they have earned the exclusive right to broker the peace. Women who are struggling to get hearth and home together after the fighting have other priorities. Implementing resolution 1325 (2000) therefore means climbing mountains. To get to first base camp, we need real, transformative and attitudinal change.