Feminist Foreign Policy: Contributions and Lessons

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Hicks
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Development Assistance ◽  
Gender Mainstreaming ◽  
Rapid Review ◽  
Policy Advocacy ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Defence Policy ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Implementation Plans ◽  
Policy Arenas

A relatively small number of countries have an explicit “Feminist Foreign Policy” (FFP). Those most often cited are Sweden, Canada, France, Mexico, and Spain. In theory, an FFP moves beyond gender mainstreaming in foreign development assistance to include: (1) a wider range of external actions, including defence, trade and diplomacy (2) a wider range of marginalised people, not just women. Within foreign development assistance, it implies a more coherent and systematically institutionalised approach to gender mainstreaming. In practice, those countries with an explicit FFP implement it in different ways. Canada currently focuses on development assistance, France on development assistance and formal diplomacy, Sweden more comprehensively covers the trade and defence policy arenas. Mexico and Spain are yet to produce detailed implementation plans. There is increasing academic interest in FFP, but most analyses found during the course of this rapid review focus on narrative content of policies rather than impact. Policy advocacy and advice is provided by several high-profile advocacy organisations. National government agencies in Sweden, France and Canada have produced some evaluations of their FFP, but the evidence is weak. There are many international institution evaluations of gender mainstreaming for many different sectors that are context-specific.

Foreign, Security, and Defence Policy

2021 ◽  
pp. 160-176
Author(s):  
Ben Tonra
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
Multilateral Institutions ◽  
Defence Policy ◽  
Face Adaptation ◽  
Policy Engagement ◽  
The Eu

This chapter explores the roots of Irish foreign, security, and defence policy, placing them in the context of a deeply pragmatic approach to public policy. Those roots are defined in terms of nationalism, solidarity, and global justice, which are themselves deep markers within Irish political culture. Ireland’s pragmatic approach is then grounded in a meticulously crafted rhetoric surrounding key foreign policy priorities but an associated reluctance to devote substantial resources towards these foreign policy and defence goals. Together, this gives rise to an assessment that the interests of smaller and less powerful states such as Ireland are best defended within legitimate, strong, and effective multilateral institutions such as the UN—even as the state continues to face adaptation challenges arising from a deepening foreign, security, and defence policy engagement within the EU.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Friedman
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Probabilistic Reasoning ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Policy Decisions ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Policy Analysts ◽  
Bay Of Pigs

This chapter describes widespread skepticism regarding the value of assessing uncertainty in international politics. “Agnostics” argue that assessments of uncertainty in international politics are too unreliable to be useful for shaping major foreign policy decisions. “Rejectionists” argue that attempting to assess uncertainty in international politics can be counterproductive, surrounding foreign policy analyses with illusions of rigor or exposing foreign policy analysts to excessive criticism. “Cynics” claim that foreign policy analysts and decision makers have self-interested motives to avoid assessing uncertainty. The chapter explains how these ideas lead many scholars, practitioners, and pundits to avoid holding careful debates about the risks surrounding major foreign policy choices. The chapter describes how this aversion to probabilistic reasoning appears in several high-profile cases, such as President Kennedy’s decision to authorize the Bay of Pigs invasion and President Obama’s decision to raid Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Pro-gender Norms in Norwegian Peace Engagement: Balancing Experiences, Values, and Interests

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-198
Author(s):  
Inger Skjelsbæk ◽  
Torunn Lise Tryggestad
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Gender Norms ◽  
The State ◽  
Development Cooperation ◽  
Gender Mainstreaming ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
Self Image

Abstract The national self-image of Norway is as a gender-equal and peace-promoting nation. Norwegian gender equality policies grew out of a strong social and political civil society engagement from below combined with equal rights laws as well as quota systems implemented from above by the state. In this paper, we explore the intersection of pro-gender norms and peace engagement in Norwegian foreign policy. While gender mainstreaming has been on the agenda of Norwegian development cooperation for decades, the introduction of pro-gender norms in peace engagement is a more recent phenomenon. How are gender equality norms and concerns understood and promoted by Norwegian peace facilitators in practice. And how are pro-gender experiences, values, and norms balanced in Norwegian peace engagement?

Gender and Foreign Policy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexis Leanna Henshaw
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Gender Mainstreaming ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Security Threats ◽  
Transformative Change ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
The Status ◽  
And Gender ◽  
National Governments ◽  
Status Of Women

While explicit efforts at gender mainstreaming in foreign policy are relatively recent, a view of foreign policy through a feminist lens illustrates that foreign policy has always been gendered. Feminist scholarship in this area suggests that masculinity has historically shaped foreign policy in important ways, while the increased presence of women in national governments, government cabinets, and the diplomatic corps has produced some notable change in policy outcomes. An examination of two key concepts related to policymaking and gender—securitization and gender mainstreaming—shows how gender issues have come to the forefront of national and international security agendas since 2000. In particular, the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda promulgated by the United Nations has obligated individual states to address gendered security issues, and dozens of countries have responded with their own National Action Plans. While these national efforts have led to some improvement in the status of women and related humanitarian outcomes, feminist scholars generally agree that the WPS agenda has stalled in its efforts to produce transformative change. As a way forward, feminist foreign policy stances promise to produce more comprehensive outcomes, though a backlash toward gender mainstreaming and the re-emergence of more traditional security threats has led to questions about the future of such efforts.

Feminist Perspectives on Foreign Policy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Marie D'Aoust
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Gender Mainstreaming ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Role Of Women ◽  
The Impact

Foreign policy analysis (FPA) deals with the decision-making processes involved in foreign policy-making. As a field of study, FPA overlaps international relations (IR) theory and comparative politics. Studies that take into account either sex, women, or gender contribute to the development of knowledge on and about women in IR, which is in itself one of the goals of feminist scholarship. There are two main spheres of feminist inquiries when it comes to foreign policy: the role of women as sexed power holders involved in decision-making processes and power-sharing in the realm of foreign policy-making, and the role of gendered norms in the conduct and adoption of foreign policies. Many observers insist that feminism and foreign policy are linked only by a marriage of convenience, designed to either acknowledge the political accomplishments of women in the sphere of foreign policy such as Margaret Thatcher and Indira Ghandi, or bring attention to so-called “women’s issues,” such as reproduction rights and population control. Scholarship on women and/or gender in relation to foreign policy covers a wide range of themes, such as the role of women as political actors in decision-making processes and organizational structures; women’s human rights and gender mainstreaming; the impact of various foreign policies on women’s lives; and the concept of human security and the idea of women’s rights as a valid foreign policy objective. Three paradigms that have been explored as part of the study of women in comparative politics and IR are behavioralism, functionalism, and rational choice theory.

High profile rape trials and policy advocacy

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-61
Author(s):  
Kristine Coulter ◽  
David S. Meyer
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York Times ◽  
Secondary Treatment ◽  
Policy Advocacy ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Focusing Events ◽  
Problem Construction ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Rape Trials ◽  
Events Data

AbstractActivists try to use high profile trials to advance their political agendas, and we want to understand why they occasionally succeed in promoting policy reforms. We begin by reviewing literature on agenda setting and social problem construction, conceptualising high profile trials as “focusing events” that offer activists a chance to advance their definitions and remedies for particular social problems. We next outline the feminist movement against sexual violence as a useful example of activists trying to use trials for their own political purposes. Using events data from theNew York Timesand the secondary treatment of 13 high profile trials from 1960 to 1997, we examine factors that help or hinder activists’ efforts to use a trial to forward their cause. We see that both the nature of the trial and the political context surrounding it affect the likelihood that a movement gains control of its meaning and secures policy reform.

Qatar could become a low-profile mediator

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Energy Prices ◽  
Content Type ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Low Profile ◽  
Bomb Attack ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood

Significance This followed Qatar's December 14 rejection of Egyptian charges that it had assisted the Islamist perpetrator of a bomb attack on a cathedral in Cairo. The accusation is the legacy of a pre-2013 era of activist foreign policy and support for the Muslim Brotherhood. Under pressure from Saudi Arabia and others, the country has since returned to the Gulf Arab fold, but relations with Egypt remain tense. Impacts Even if recovering energy prices ease the fiscal situation in 2017, foreign policy is likely to be cautious. The legacy of previous unsuccessful mediation efforts in Yemen could compromise Qatar’s role in conflict-resolution efforts. Qatar is not as strongly involved in Libya as before, but maintains low-profile ties with Tripolitanian, Islamist-leaning groups. Ties with Riyadh could strengthen further after a high-profile visit by King Salman on December 5.

The Domestic Fruits of Diplomacy: Mediation and Presidential Approval

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
James P. Todhunter
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Us Foreign Policy ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Presidential Approval ◽  
The Public ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Approval Rating ◽  
National Leaders ◽  
High Level

Abstract The notion that national leaders use foreign policy actions for domestic political benefit is widely accepted in the foreign policy literature, but has only been studied with regard to foreign policy involving the use of force. Literature on third-party mediation has emerged separately and has not taken mediators’ domestic political motivations and constraints into account when explaining mediation occurrence and outcomes. Diplomatic efforts such as mediation should be appealing to leaders seeking to impress their domestic audience because it provides them with a low risk opportunity to appear competent to their domestic audience. While mediation is a regular occurrence in US foreign policy, its public visibility varies greatly. However, models of presidential media coverage suggest that media outlets are likely to pay a disproportionate amount of attention to presidents and their high level surrogates while engaging in diplomacy overseas. The article proposes that the higher the profile of the official an administration sends to mediate a crisis overseas, the greater the increase in the president’s approval rating. Additionally, the public’s attentiveness to foreign policy should condition the effect of a high profile mediator on presidential approval. As foreign policy becomes more salient to the public, the effect of a higher profile mediator on presidential approval should be greater. Empirical results support the argument.

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