Interrogating the 'feminist' in feminist foreign policy

Since Sweden’s announcement in 2014, over a dozen states across the Global North and South have adopted a consciously ‘feminist’ approach to their foreign policy. Yet its advent largely took civil society by surprise, and it is often poorly understood. Different states also adopt very different areas of focus in their respective policies. This chapter outlines two parallel projects that seek to interrogate the meaning of feminism within feminist foreign policy (FFP). How do states understand this term? What are their ambitions for FFP, and how does this vary? How do we understand FFP as not just a state vehicle but, increasingly, a transnational movement? In answering these questions, these projects aim to deepen our understanding of the role of gender within states’ foreign policies, and to better understand the institutional and political mechanisms that have allowed for the adoption of these policies.