Description
Feminist foreign policy (FFP) is rapidly gaining traction as an approach to international relations. Across over a dozen countries, FFP is adopted by states which aim to position women’s rights and gender equality within their foreign policy. Yet what FFP means for the states that adopt it remains confused. There is a lack of clarity around FFP, a fact which is compounded by the fact that different states adopting it focus on very different things within their FFP agendas.
This paper looks comparatively at all of the states which have so far adopted FFP to greater understand the central foci of FFP. Adopting a narrative analysis, this paper looks at documents produced by FFP states, and draws on interviews conducted with civil society and government representatives, to explore what an FFP approach means. It shows that three key narratives underpin FFP discourse: ontological framings; FFP as a reaction to contemporary challenges; and FFP as ‘smart’. It argues that FFP is presented as a policy agenda which will reinvigorate the values of the international liberal order, and the multilateral organisations on which is stands.
