The Official CFFP Definition
We believe foreign policy has the potential to be a mechanism for equality, justice, solidarity, and peace.
But there can't be peace without feminism.
A Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP) is a political framework centred around the wellbeing of marginalised people and invokes processes of self-reflection regarding foreign policy’s hierarchical global systems. FFP takes a step outside the black box approach of traditional foreign policy thinking and its focus on military force, violence, and domination by offering an alternate and intersectional rethinking of security from the viewpoint of the most vulnerable. It is a multidimensional policy framework that aims to elevate women’s and marginalised groups’ experiences and agency to scrutinise the destructive forces of patriarchy, colonisation, heteronormativity, capitalism, racism, imperialism, and militarism. CFFP believes a feminist approach to foreign policy provides a powerful lens through which we can interrogate the violent global systems of power that leave millions of people in perpetual states of vulnerability.
An intersectional feminist perspective has been increasingly implemented in academia and activism, but less so in policy practice. CFFP draws on lessons from critical feminist and race scholarship so that we can:
Develop actionable policy recommendations in order to make foreign policy more accessible and democratic.
Challenge the dominant neoliberal underpinnings of international political discourse.
Facilitate structural and hierarchical change to end patterns of oppression and discrimination.
Elevate the voices of those who’ve suffered most from militarised security.
Emphasise historicised, context-specific analyses of how destructive dichotomies play out in practice.
Interrogate domestic and foreign policy decisions to push for a more just global order.
What Governments Are Up To
Click to through to read the Original Policy Documents
What Civil Society is Up To
At CFFP, we believe Feminist Foreign Policy agendas should be set by civil society and feminist activists.
Here’s a selection of resources generated by activists and non-profits. Pour a tea and dig in!
CFFP Germany: The Feminist Foreign Policy Web Dossier
The Feminist Foreign Policy Working Group: Be Brave, Be Bold: Recommendations for Canada’s feminist foreign policy
Women’s Budget Group and WEN: Towards a Feminist Green New Deal in the UK
Women’s Policy Group NI: Covid-19 Feminist Recovery Plan
CFFP Germany: A Feminist Foreign Policy for the European Union