The Nuclear Ban Treaty and the cloud over Trudeau’s ‘feminist’ foreign policy
| Published date | 01 September 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020702019876368 |
| Date | 01 September 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Scholarly Essay |
Scholarly Essay
The Nuclear Ban Treaty
and the cloud over
Trudeau’s ‘feminist’
foreign policy
Lee-Anne Broadhead
L’nu, Political, and Social Studies, Cape Breton University, Sydney,
Nova Scotia, Canada
Sean Howard
L’nu, Political, and Social Studies, Cape Breton University, Sydney,
Nova Scotia, Canada
Abstract
The Canadian Liberal government of Justin Trudeau claims to be ushering in a new era
of a ‘‘feminist’’ foreign policy. While serious steps have been taken in this direction, this
paper focuses on the government’s opposition to the Treaty on the Prohibition of
Nuclear Weapons, a treaty that has been negotiated with a logic and language explicitly
linking issues of disarmament and gender, reframing ‘‘security’’ as fundamentally a ques-
tion not of state but of human (and environmental) security. Ignoring its own public
statements that repeatedly link women with peace and security, the Trudeau govern-
ment’s opposition to the Treaty exposes the hollowness of its claims.
Keywords
Canada, foreign policy, nuclear weapons, Trudeau, feminism
Nuclear weapons are the beating heart of our colonial and patriarchal order. These
weapons and the security apparatus that places faith in them are inherently dehumaniz-
ing. – Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear
Weapons (ICAN)
International Journal
2019, Vol. 74(3) 422–444
!The Author(s) 2019
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0020702019876368
journals.sagepub.com/home/ijx
Corresponding author:
Lee-Anne Broadhead, Cape Breton University, Political Studies, Box 5300-1250 Grand Lake Road, Sydney,
Nova Scotia, B1P 6L2, Canada.
Email: LeeAnne_Broadhead@cbu.ca
‘‘Because it’s 2015 ...’’
The Canadian Liberal government of Justin Trudeau, elected in October 2015,
claims to be ushering in a new era in Canadian foreign policy. Declaring himself
a feminist—and because, as he famously declared, ‘‘it’s 2015’’
1
—the prime minister
insisted on gender balance in his cabinet, arguing that in both domestic and inter-
national settings, the equitable, high-level inclusion of women benefits policy deci-
sion-making. Since her appointment in 2016, his feminist foreign minister, Chrystia
Freeland, has emerged as a prominent global champion of policies and practices
better serving—and empowering—women and girls. Though the focus of this paper
is on the serious limitations of the Trudeau–Freeland bid to break decisively from
the past, the serious steps taken in the direction of a ‘‘feminist foreign policy’’
should be acknowledged.
As Exhibit A, in 2017, the government published a comprehensive National
Action Plan for the implementation of the landmark UN Security Council
Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace and Security.
2
The Plan established a
goal of ensuring that 95 percent of Canadian aid is directed toward gender equality
by 2022, a welcome change from what Stephen Brown referred to as the
‘‘instrumentalization of foreign aid’’ under the previous Conservative government
of Stephen Harper—that is, the use of aid as a means to the end of limiting
women’s rights, by, for example, withholding from its ‘‘Maternal, Newborn and
Child Health’’ initiative any funds ‘‘to support abortion services, even where they
were legal.’’
3
The Trudeau government also launched the Elsie Initiative for
Women in Peace Operations, to increase the number of women in military and
police peacekeeping,
4
and increased available funding to civil society groups
through the ‘‘Women’s Voice and Leadership’’ initiative.
5
Internationally, it used
1. ‘‘Trudeau’s ‘Because its 2015’ retort draws international attention,’’ The Globe and Mail,
5 November 2015, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/trudeaus-because-its-2015-
retort-draws-international-cheers/article27119856/ (accessed 23 July 2019).
2. Government of Canada, Gender Equality: A Foundation for Peace – Canada’s National Action Plan
2017–2022 (Ottawa: Global Affairs Canada, 2017), https://international.gc.ca/world-monde/
issues_development-enjeux_developpement/gender_equality-egalite_des_genres/cnp-pnac-17-
22.aspx?lang¼eng (accessed 23 July 2019). It should be noted that this plan replaces the 2011–2016
plan of the Harper government, which was the initial response to the UN Security Council’s call for
governments to act. See UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (31 October 2000), https://www.un.
org/womenwatch/osagi/wps/ (accessed 23 July 2019).
3. Global Affairs Canada, Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy: #HerVoiceHerChoice
(Government of Canada: Ottawa, 2017). Stephen Brown, ‘‘The instrumentalization of foreign aid
under the Harper government,’’ Studies in Political Economy 97, no. 1 (2016): 28.
4. Prime Minister of Canada, ‘‘The Elsie Initiative on Women in Peace Operations,’’ 15 November
2017, https://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2017/11/15/elsie-initiative-women-peace-operations (accessed 23
July 2019).
5. Government of Canada, Women’s Voice and Leadership Program (unveiled June 2017), https://
international.gc.ca/world-monde/issues_development-enjeux_developpement/gender_equality-ega-
lite_des_genres/wvl_projects-projets_vlf.aspx?lang¼eng (accessed 23 July 2019).
Broadhead and Howard 423
To continue reading
Request your trial