Why does war take place despite the general aversion to war? Why does war disproportionately impact some social groups and genders? Why is there an unequal distribution of wealth, care, attention and sympathy in war? Why is climate change an existential threat to humanity, particularly to marginalised social groups and gender? Why is public health a national security issue? Why does any foreign policy that does not centre human beings fail externally and internally? Feminism seeks to explore these significant questions, offering an alternative lens to these issues.

While feminism is plural and often includes diverse perspectives on a single issue, it has some common concerns. Feminist foreign policy (FFP) draws from various longstanding feminist concerns and activism to articulate and implement policies that promote gender equality inside and outside the country. Gender equality is a precondition for and a precursor to a peaceful, just and egalitarian society that is secure and stable.

With this note, the Centre for Social Innovation and Foreign Policy recently organised a conference, “Shaping Nepal’s Future: Prospect and Roadmap for FFP”. It was a departure point for discussions on FFP, highlighting the constitutional basis of FFP, participation and representation of women and women’s concerns in domestic and foreign policies, priorities and pathways for post-conflict states like Nepal. It was encouraging to see greater interest and support for the re-imagination of Nepali foreign policy cohering along feminist principles in discourse and practice.

In subsequent articles, we will focus on a synopsis of FFP, its core characteristics, its relevance to countries like Nepal, and how it promotes Nepal's national interest. This piece provides a brief background and outline of FFP, explains how it differs from conventional foreign policy and clarifies why this is a timely debate in Nepal’s foreign policy. The objective is to kickstart an intellectual and policy discourse on Nepal’s foreign policy. We highlight the significance of FFP by exploring various issues central to Nepal’s national interest, possible challenges, and how FFP helps us navigate them.

Although the term “feminist foreign policy” is a nascent field of research and practice, it gained prominence after Sweden adopted FFP in 2014. Nonetheless, the idea of feminist approaches to global politics and international relations is nearly a century old. In the 1915 Hague Conference, women peace activists adopted 20 resolutions envisioning a peaceful, just and egalitarian world. Various UN World Conferences on Women, including Beijing Platform for Action 1995 and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, are some of the key feminist thrusts in world politics prior to FFP.

FFP explores and highlights the gendered structures, practices and knowledge claims that constitute contemporary mainstreaming thinking about global politics. In doing so, it problematises core realist claims on world politics, as masculinist knowledge claims, that preclude radical imagination of the world based on empathy, care and cooperation. However, this does not imply preceding the idea of national interest altogether. Instead, moving beyond the narrow and abstract conceptualisation of security as national security, FFP focuses on people, both inside and outside the state, as primary referent objects of security that bolsters national security.

Similarly, the FFP approach adopts a gender-responsive policy approach embedded in both the internal and the external foreign policy environment. This policy is inclusive and bottom-up, drawing from social movements and other non-state actors in a manner that prioritises peace, gender equality and environmental security; glorifies, promotes and protects the human rights of all; seeks to disrupt colonial, racist, patriarchal and male-dominated power structures; and allocates significant resources, including research, to achieve that vision. Additionally, intersectional approach, inclusivity, ethics of care and empathetic cooperation are some of the themes that revolve around the discussions of FFP.

However, there is an absence of a universally accepted definition of FFP. Neither are there uniform policies and programmes or a coherent framework for its implementation. FFP is configured differently in terms of policies, programmes and accountability mechanisms. Certain countries, such as France and Canada, prioritise the empowerment of women and girls. At the same time, Luxembourg and the Netherlands incorporate the LGBTI perspective. Mexico has pledged to achieve complete employment equality and incorporate a gender perspective in all foreign policy positions, resolutions, and mandates by 2024. Previously, Sweden released annual updates regarding its FFP. Similarly, some FFPs (e.g., Mexico and Chile) have an inward focus, while others (e.g., France, Canada, Sweden and the Netherlands) have an outward focus. In contrast, others, such as Spain, establish a balance between the two.

Nepal has achieved remarkable socio-political transformation in the last two decades. Since its inception as a modern nation-state in 1768 AD, Nepal has experienced different types of regimes. Simultaneously, the world has undergone a radical transformation regarding geopolitics, economy, technology and socio-cultural norms and practices. Yet Nepal’s foreign policy remains largely unchanged, firmly stuck in an archaic understanding of national security in the form of territorial integrity and border control.

Contemporary Nepal faces many new challenges ranging from climate change to threats in digital/cyberspace, possible ethnic strife, food security, brain and brawn drain, inequality in society and democratic backslide and decay, to name a few. While the threat to sovereignty and territorial integrity is ever present, the perception of such threat is mainly inflated, overshadowing real and emerging security threats.

In this context, FFP offers a tantalising prospect to re-envision our foreign policy, reflecting the transformed global, regional and local political reality. It propels us to invest in human capital and enhance human security by prioritising the marginalised gender and social groups. Nepal has already been a party to all the major conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda that seek to promote women’s rights, show commitment to gender equality, and try to enhance women’s participation in all spheres of life.

Similarly, the inclusive and egalitarian imagination and people-centric progressive ambition of the 2015 constitution provide a firm basis for FFP. Finally, Nepal can get a new platform and network to engage closely with some of the most democratic, prosperous, and egalitarian countries in the world, share its unique experiences of social-political transformation, and learn from their experience in governance, human development, and areas important to Nepal’s national interest.