Dossier

Feminist foreign policy

Diversity in political decision-making processes contributes to more successful and sustainable policies and guarantees greater responsiveness to the people’s needs. However, women and marginalised groups still have limited access to the decision-making process, especially in the field of foreign and security policy. Feminist foreign policy offers a new approach by putting human security at its core and aiming at dismantling oppressive and discriminatory power structures, addressing the experiences and needs of all parts of society, especially of the most vulnerable and marginalised groups.

Contributions from our offices and partners

Germany's feminist foreign and development policy: Need for changes in relations with the South Caucasus

Analysis

The German government is in the process of spelling out a feminist foreign and development policy. This article, aimed at contributing to policy changes based on the new paradigm, suggests how Germany’s policy towards Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, whose political relevance has increased for Berlin due to Russia’s war in Ukraine, could become feminist.

Dr. Sonja Schiffers

Ukraine's recovery needs a gender-sensitive approach

Interview

The precondition for a real and sustainable recovery of Ukraine is, above all, the victory over the Russian aggression against the country. Still, the discussion on the vision and specific steps for reconstruction cannot wait as residents of damaged towns and millions of internally displaced persons need viable living conditions already now, while the war is still ongoing. Ukrainian society needs to build up resilience in many aspects. This interview presents a feminist perspective on the priorities of reconstruction and the importance of international support and allyship among communities. An interview with Galyna Kotliuk, Programme Coordinator - Gender Democracy/Women Rights/LGBT-Rights at the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Kyiv office. Українська версія | Auf Deutsch

Anna Lysiak

“Women, Life, Freedom”: A German feminist foreign policy towards Iran

Analysis

In Iran, feminist foreign policy demands both short-term interventions to alleviate the suffering of the civilian population and a long-term approach to deal with the state’s structural violence against its own citizens.

Barbara Mittelhammer, Cornelius Adebahr

Feminist foreign policy in action: exiled Afghan women MPs in Greece

Commentary

Afghan women political representatives want to establish a parliament in exile in Greece: reason enough for me to pay them a visit and show my support.

Hannah Neumann

A Green Feminist Foreign Policy for the EU

Commentary

From Sweden to Mexico, an avant-garde of countries is pioneering feminist foreign policy. The European Union has made progress in promoting gender equality in its external action, but much remains to be done before it will deliver structural change. Juliane Schmidt calls for a green feminist foreign policy rooted in intersectionality that will enable the EU to live up to its values of freedom and equality.

Juliane Schmidt

Is the EU a feminist actor?

Commentary

The inclusion of feminist principles is an important progressive step in the EU’s external relations policymaking. A result of this inclusion has been the development of gender equality policies aimed at conflict situations and in international development assistance. Arguably, the EU is a leader in gender equality within the foreign policy arena. Yet, while the integration of feminism has supported concrete gender equality policies, the narrow interpretation of feminism undermines its transformative potential and highlights coherency gaps in the EU’s approach.

Toni Haastrup

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Practicing Feminist Foreign Policy in the Everyday.PNG

Practicing Feminist Foreign Policy in the Everyday: A Toolkit

Explainer

Feminist foreign policy is emerging as a new paradigm in international relations. The concept raises expectations of a more peaceful and just foreign policy, but its theoretical dimension and practical implementation are often not clearly defined. This toolkit tries to close this gap and clarify key terms of feminist foreign policy, as well as outline the practical application of the feminist approach to international diplomacy, to security, environmental, development, trade and migration policy.

Victoria Scheyer, Dilek Gürsel, Marie Jelenka Kirchner, Jessica Cheung

Madita Standke-Erdmann

Published: November 2021

This study critically examines some of the gendered and racialized notions about migrants embedded in and institutionalized through the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, by engaging with the definitory and conceptual unclarities as to who the Pact defines as “especially vulnerable groups” and according to which criteria, making a relevant contribution to ongoing debates with regard to the EU’s future migration and border politics.

Guidelines for Feminist Foreign Policy: a foreign policy for all

Societies are more peaceful and prosperous when everyone can play an equal part in political, social and economic life. The German Foreign Service published on 1 March 2023 its guidelines to reach these overall objectives.

Click on the image to read the Guidelines ⬇️