Description
Driven by the desire to promote a feminist analysis within the foreign policy sphere and within the foreign policy analysis discipline, this paper, using feminist epistemologies and drawing from the work of scholars in Feminist International Relations and Feminist Theory more broadly, it uniquely focuses on the agencies of critical and less-traditional actors involved in feminist foreign policy formulation, encapsulated in the concept of a 'feminist foreign policy ecosystem.'
This paper is the first draft of one of the two empirical chapter of a broader PhD project that seeks to understand and compare the rise of feminist foreign policies in Germany and Mexico, with a particular focus on the power dynamics and global and gender hierarchies that have shaped their formulation and adoption processes. Findings from the first fieldwork conducted in Berlin between March and May 2024 will be presented in a detailed way while the preliminary findings of the fieldwork in Mexico City (January-April 2025) will be presented for the first time.
The project, and therefore the paper, investigates how these networks were formed, who the most prominent and leading actors within them were, and who was silenced or excluded during the policy formulation process. Additionally, it identifies both informal and formal strategies used by these actors to promote a normative shift from traditional foreign policy to feminist foreign policy. Central to this analysis is an exploration of the power dynamics that emerged among actors within the ecosystem, as well as their interactions with foreign policy institutions. By highlighting the entanglements of power hierarchy, gendered dynamics, and the persistence of coloniality in the feminist foreign policy making process, the project contributes to a deeper understanding of the challenges and possibilities of advancing feminist principles in global governance.
