Theorising feminist foreign policy
| Published date | 01 March 2019 |
| Author | Karin Aggestam,Annica Kronsell,Annika Bergman Rosamond |
| Date | 01 March 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0047117818811892 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0047117818811892
International Relations
2019, Vol. 33(1) 23 –39
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/0047117818811892
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Theorising feminist foreign
policy
Karin Aggestam,
Annika Bergman Rosamond
and Annica Kronsell
Lund University
Abstract
A growing number of states including Canada, Norway and Sweden have adopted gender and
feminist-informed approaches to their foreign and security policies. The overarching aim of this
article is to advance a theoretical framework that can enable a thoroughgoing study of these
developments. Through a feminist lens, we theorise feminist foreign policy arguing that it is,
to all intents and purposes, ethical and argue that existing studies of ethical foreign policy and
international conduct are by and large gender-blind. We draw upon feminist International Relations
(IR) theory and the ethics of care to theorise feminist foreign policy and to advance an ethical
framework that builds on a relational ontology, which embraces the stories and lived experiences
of women and other marginalised groups at the receiving end of foreign policy conduct. By way
of conclusion, the article highlights the novel features of the emergent framework and investigates
in what ways it might be useful for future analyses of feminist foreign policy. Moreover, we
discuss its potential to generate new forms of theoretical insight, empirical knowledge and policy
relevance for the refinement of feminist foreign policy practice.
Keywords
dialogue, ethics of care, feminist foreign policy, feminist theory, gender, inclusion, international
ethics
Introduction
In 2014, the Swedish red–green coalition government adopted a feminist foreign policy,
which signalled a substantial change in its external conduct. Its pronounced ambition
was to become the ‘strongest global voice for gender equality and full employment of
human rights by all women and girls’.1 Sweden’s feminist foreign policy platform also
Corresponding author:
Karin Aggestam, Department of Political Science, Lund University, Box 52, Lund 221 00, Sweden.
Email: karin.aggestam@svet.lu.se
811892IRE0010.1177/0047117818811892International RelationsAggestam et al.
research-article2018
Article
24 International Relations 33(1)
signals a strong support for United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325,
adopted in 2000, and related resolutions on women, peace and security (WPS). Moreover,
the advancement of a distinctively feminist foreign policy was closely linked to Sweden’s
Foreign Minister Margot Wallström, a top diplomat with past experience as the UN spe-
cial representative on sexual violence in conflict. On numerous occasions, Wallström has
emphasised both the link between women’s participation in global politics and sustain-
able peace and the notion that women’s empowerment positively impacts on national and
international security.2 While Sweden’s comprehensive and explicit commitment to pur-
sue a feminist foreign policy is exceptional, other states have also sought to advance
pro-gender norms and the WPS-agenda, as part of their foreign policy conduct. For
instance, during her tenure as the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton launched the
‘Hillary Doctrine’ which framed the subjugation of women as a security threat to the
United States and the world.3 Under the leadership of former British Foreign Secretary
William Hague, the United Kingdom promoted a normative shift towards the eradication
of sexual violence in conflict4 and Australia’s first female foreign minister, Julie Bishop,
consistently promoted gender mainstreaming in international institutions while in office.5
Norway has a long track record of actively supporting gender mainstreaming in areas of
peacekeeping, peacebuilding and development assistance.6
This article approaches the theorisation of these new patterns of foreign policy prac-
tice and discourse through a feminist lens, in particular by drawing on scholarship on
ethical foreign policy,7 feminist theory8 and the ethics of care.9 A key contention is that
feminist foreign policy is in itself ethical since it places at the centre of the analysis such
things as gendered discrimination, inequalities and violence as well as the lack of inclu-
sion and representation of women and other marginalised groups.10 Yet existing research
on ethical foreign policy is, by and large, gender blind. Hence the rise to prominence of
the 1325 agenda and notions of global gender justice call for a distinct analytical frame-
work located within feminist ethical reasoning and theory. Nonetheless, we recognise
that gender-sensitive foreign policies are frequently couched within ethical consideration
for the needs and wants of distant others as well as policy pragmatism since the practical
conduct of foreign and security policy is mediated through a variety of policy options
and compromises across a range of diverging political positions. By implication, the
making of foreign policy may, at times, necessitate deviations and trade-offs from the
ethical ideals that one might otherwise expect from the feminist and gender-based con-
duit of foreign policy.11
The article is structured as follows. We commence by situating our discussion of
feminist foreign policy within the broad confines of international ethics scholarship, in
particular, notions of ethical foreign policy, good states and international citizenship. Our
key premise here is that debates on ethical foreign policy and good international conduct
are generally gender-blind, but that this can be rectified through the theorisation of femi-
nist foreign policy. Second, we elaborate on the ways in which feminist international
relations (IR) theory contributes to the theoretical advancement of feminist foreign pol-
icy. We note that feminist IR theory not only provides opportunities to focus on the role
of women in global politics but also probes a broader set of questions about states’ efforts
to place issues of intersectional relevance on the global agenda through inclusive and
localised dialogue. The third section turns to the ethics of care and the idea that open and
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