In 2021, Hindustan Times quoted India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar on Feminist informed foreign policy – “I agree that we need to look at the world from the perspective of women, we need a gender-balanced foreign policy. We need to look at three things here: Getting more women to engage with foreign policy issues, reflecting women’s interests in foreign policy, and bringing in a feminist perspective to foreign policy”. In 2023 during its G20 presidency, India showcased its capability to be a gender advocate in the Global South, having successfully introduced an ideational transition from development for women to women-led development.
Yet despite a sharp understanding of Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP) at the leadership level and a proven foreign policy appetite for promoting gender equality, India is yet to adopt a feminist-informed foreign policy.
WHAT IS THE FEMINIST TURN IN FOREIGN POLICY MAKING?
Feminist Foreign Policy can best be summed up as a policy innovation which integrates feminist values, goals, and methods in the foreign policy of a country, and through such an innovation seeks to achieve alternative foreign policy impacts as opposed to foreign policy-as is.
A good FFP is centred on feminist analysis of all aspects of a country’s foreign policy making ecosystem including foreign policy institutions, the foreign policy itself, initiatives being undertaken as part of the foreign policy, associated budgets etc.
