Decolonial Feminist Approaches to Foreign Policy

since 2014, several countries and multilateral blocks have either adopted or committed to adopting Feminist Foreign Policies. however, a lot more needs to be done in prioritizing feminism in feminist foreign policies. while some have chosen to continue dispensing aid, some chose to add women and stir. instead of choosing to engage with feminist values and focusing on intersectionality and peace, most policies continued to normalize “feminism-lite” agendas. in reality, women and non-binary people in the global south have been "doing" feminist foreign policy for generations now. movements ranging from resisting colonialism to practicing food sovereignty, from inclusive lawmaking to deploying international law in pushing for their rights - the wealth of knowledge embodied in praxis in the majority world must be centered. all of this continues alongside major shifts in geopolitics with the proliferation of technology. what might it mean to truly embed feminist principles into foreign policy? this course takes a deep dive into the field to build strong understandings of feminist foreign policy as a concept. it offers a comprehensive overview of feminist foreign policies as they exist, presents the building blocks of such policies, and presents lessons from rich examples from the majority world.

in this course, participants will:

• understand the violent roots of the current template for international relations and foreign policy
• understand how states are not the only actors in foreign policy spaces and reflect on how we can open up spaces for the entire continuum of actors to be represented in how foreign policy is practiced.
• understand the relationship between power and the state, which underpins contemporary international relations, and start to build a practice of interrogating it
• understand the nexus between gender and the state, and in international relations, to unpack how feminist foreign policies are currently built and implemented.
• explore building blocks for feminist foreign policy from the majority world that can bring the transformative potential of truly feminist foreign policies alive.
• learn from real-life examples of transformative feminist foreign policies in practice, drawn across time and space, from the breadth of the majority world.
• move toward implementing learnings from the program into action through the use of tools and approaches to build and implement feminist foreign policies.

• activists seeking to expand their theoretical knowledge and analysis
• students / practitioners of international relations, international law, diplomacy
• students / practitioners of the women, peace, and security agenda
• anyone with an interest in geopolitics and foreign policy