Description
In times of increasing polarization, gender has become a major fault-lines in global politics. This paper explores the ways in which foreign policy leaders navigate and harness these pro- and anti-gender norms in global politics to further their power, status and authority to act. Gendered games in foreign policy emanate from the intersections between the domestic, international and transnational levels, and reach within and across states (Aggestam and True, 2021). This paper analyses the case of Sweden’s feminist foreign policy. In 2014, Sweden launched as the first country in the world a feminist foreign policy. Since then, eight other countries have followed suit. Despite this growing trend, Sweden has now opted after the recent elections in 2022 to dismantle and scrap the feminist framing of its foreign policy. This paper argues that political leaders in foreign policy tend to navigate and manage gendered dynamics as a source of power, which provides opportunities and restraints. Particularly in times of crisis, such as the one posed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, gendered norms create the illusion of fixed and stable structures that reassert boundaries— defining identity, the home, public and private, and the nation-state.
