The limits of state-led norm entrepreneurship: The United Kingdom and the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI)

Abstract

This article examines the limits of state-led norm entrepreneurship in the case of the UK and the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative. The UK-led Preventing Sexual Violence in conflict Initiative emerged in 2012 and accelerated to the tipping point and beginning of the norm cascade by 2014. However, the Preventing Sexual Violence in conflict Initiative has since struggled to sustain similar levels of UK-led entrepreneurship where resources and institutional support have stagnated and declined. This article argues that the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative is evidence of how a norm that originally benefits from powerful state-led entrepreneurship to the point of cascading has to be maintained by consistent state support to prevent its progress from slowing, and potentially stagnating, at a significant moment in its evolution. The article contributes to research on norm entrepreneurship, the norm lifecycle, and analysis of the reasons why the UK’s entrepreneurship on the Preventing Sexual Violence in conflict Initiative has gradually stagnated when compared to its initial considerable investment in leadership and support.