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Join us to explore what the mission and purpose of a feminist foreign policy think tank can be when the current foreign policy of the United States is rooted in patriarchy, militarism and imperialism.
Despite its relatively recent appearance in mainstream foreign policy discussions, feminist foreign policy has received a great deal of attention in the past few years. Sweden and Canada have declared that they will focus on issues of gender equality when conducting their foreign policies. Hillary Clinton claimed to focus on women and girls' equality during her time as Secretary of State under President Barack Obama. But how do these policies actually impact women around the world? Is it "feminist" to spend sixty percent of the federal budget on military expenses? Is it feminist to sell arms and weapons to Saudi Arabia, a country that has arrested women's rights activists? What does it mean when “feminist” Hillary Clinton’s support of a regime-change in Honduras led to an increase in femicides and forced thousands of families to flee, only to be kept in cages at the Southern border?
It is through interrogating the interlocking systems of militarism, patriarchy, capitalism and imperialism and their impact on the foreign policy of the United States that we hope to create a foreign policy that is beneficial to women/people all across the globe. When we leave these systems of oppression unexamined, our most vulnerable populations suffer the most. This past June, we funded the first Conference on Global Socialist Feminism at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, organized by Elisabeth Armstrong, Kristen R. Ghodsee and Wang Zheng. Over the course of three days ,academics from all over the world gathered to discuss the ways in which socialist feminists in countries like the former USSR, Cuba, China and Algeria worked to improve the lives and conditions of women in their respective countries. What we learned was crucial: that being bold, brave and feminist in our demands for a peaceful future, one that is free of oppressive systems, will help us get there much faster.
Recently, George Soros and Charles Koch announced their jointly established think tank, the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in which they seek to end the United States’ policy of “forever war”. While the Quincy Institute states that it will seek to end US intervention, we cannot separate it from its roots: founded by capitalists and lacking a critical feminist perspective, profit will still be the end goal. The time to create a new kind of collective that is rooted in grassroots movements and able to nourish policymakers with popular, progressive policies from a feminist perspective towards building permanent and sustainable peace is now. We see the future of foreign policy on the horizon and it is feminist and it begins with us.
What makes foreign policy feminist?
Feminist foreign policy has gotten a lot of attention in the past few years. Sweden and Canada have declared that they will focus on issues of gender equality when conducting their foreign policies. Hillary Clinton claimed to focus on women and girls' equality during her time as Secretary of State under President Obama. But how do these policies actually impact women around the world? Is it "feminist" to spend sixty percent of the federal budget on military expenses? Is it feminist to sell arms and weapons to Saudi Arabia, a country that has arrested women's rights activists?
We don't think so.
With US foreign policy dominated by a patriarchal, militaristic worldview, a group of feminists has realized the urgent need for a policy-making institute with a feminist perspective. We are anxious to create a new kind of collective that is rooted in grassroots movements and able to nourish policymakers with popular, progressive policies from a feminist perspective towards building permanent and sustainable peace. Working with a diverse team of advisors, academics, feminists and brilliant thinkers, our goal is to launch this new organization, tentatively called Feminist Peace Forum: Strengthening Feminist Foreign Policy.