In recent years, the European Union (EU) has adopted some feminist principles, especially in its external relations practices. This move towards a greater inclusion of feminism has been informed by both internal drivers and external commitments, which this intervention will unpack. Yet despite the inclusion of feminist principles as an important progressive step in the EU’s policymaking for external relations, significant blind spots remain which call into question the EU’s overarching feminist credentials. This intervention makes the case for feminism as a perspective that extends beyond gender equality, an important and necessary but insufficient condition for a feminist foreign policy. Promoting gender equality as a synonym for a ‘feminist’ foreign policy without the attendant moral and ethical commitments undermines expansive feminist possibilities of EU external action.

Toni Haastrup is a Professor in International Politics at the University of Stirling. She is a graduate of the University of California, Davis (BA), the University of Cape Town (MA), and the University of Edinburgh (PhD). Her research broadly explores the nature of global power hierarchies (between the Global North and South) in knowledge and practice. She has worked in the area of global governance of security via regional security institutions - the African and European Unions. A part of her current research agenda draws on critical feminisms to understand the foreign policy practices of both institutions.

During the course 2022-23, IBEI has organised a series of research seminars, which normally take place once a week. Check the 2022-23 programme