In June 2019, the United States (US) adopted a national strategy on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS). In previous years, the US developed a National Action Plan (NAP) for the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and the WPS agenda with the first NAP adopted in December 2011 and the second NAP adopted in June 2016 for the periods of 2011-2015 and 2016-2018, respectively.
In 2017, the Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017 was passed, (signed into law on October 6, 2017), which mandated a government wide strategy on WPS within one year, focused on the increase in participation of women in conflict prevention and peace building.
The United States has considerable influence in global security as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and an influential economic, political and military power. The US is the world’s largest military spender by far, with over $700 billion spent on its military budget alone in 2019 (excluding intelligence, nuclear weapons expenditure, and the Department of Homeland Security’). It is also a nuclear-armed state, the world’s largest supplier of arms and home country for a significant proportion of the growing private military contracting industry. While in 2013 the US signed the Arms Trade Treaty, which regulates the flow of weapons across international borders, the US government in 2019 informed the UN Secretary-General that the US has no intention to become a party to the treaty. The United States is presently engaged in military operations in several locations around the world, such as Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, in addition to having numerous permanent bases, and joint training operations in places such as Poland, Ukraine, Kuwait, South Korea, Japan, Yemen, and Somalia as well as being a major troop contributor to NATO. The US is also a large aid contributor and holds considerable influence in world banking institutions.