Foreign policy and diplomacy

Abstract

Until recently, foreign policy and diplomacy have been some of the most male-dominated fields of state and international policy. Any changes to foreign policy and diplomacy – the strategies and tactics used in international relations between state, inter-state, supra-national, and non-state actors alike – has a major impact on how foreign policy practices are perceived, but also how they are analysed. With the entry of feminist (peace) activism into state discourses and beyond, a range of states have engaged with integrating feminist initiatives into their approach to foreign policy and diplomacy. Feminist scholars have important contributions to make to the study and practice of foreign policy and diplomacy Feminist foreign policy entails goals and expectations that necessarily lead to fundamental global resistance, but that could also bring about visible gender-sensitive results and is essential to peace and demilitarisation. Many countries that situate their foreign policy and diplomatic practices within the contemporary feminist turn are typically self-identifying.