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‘Femi­nist’ for­eign poli­cy — what does that mean?

Anna­le­na Baer­bock is Germany’s first fema­le for­eign minis­ter. Accord­ing to the new government’s coali­ti­on agree­ment, she wants to pur­sue a “femi­nist for­eign poli­cy.” But opi­ni­ons dif­fer as to what that actual­ly means.

You mean for­eign poli­cy, the thing thats inten­tio­nal­ly deco­u­pled from per­so­nal egos, day to day poli­tics and socie­ties morals, becau­se other­wi­se it didnt turn out great?

How about we soak that in a con­cept that is inten­ded for morals based class war­fa­re, I mean betterment?

The first group seeks a peace­ful, uto­pian ver­si­on of for­eign poli­cy at all cos­ts; while the other is pri­ma­ri­ly con­cer­ned with get­ting more women into posi­ti­ons of power in public diplo­ma­cy, the mili­ta­ry and civil society.

What could go wrong?

“Femi­nism tri­es to smash struc­tures that rely on vio­lence,” she told DW. She cites the fight against ter­ro­rism as one examp­le: 90% of ter­ro­rists ope­ra­ting world­wi­de are men.

Sor­ry I asked… Won’t ask again.

So is this real­ly how you’d have a lea­ding coun­try in the EU ope­ra­te in the fol­lowing years?

The con­cern is that the chan­cel­le­ry will con­ti­nue to take care of the “big play­ers” like the United Sta­tes, Chi­na, Fran­ce, the EU and Rus­sia, while lea­ving smal­ler fish to the For­eign Ministry.

She cri­ti­ci­zed for­mer For­eign Minis­ter Hei­ko Maas for allowing hims­elf to be, as she put it, “demo­ted” in this way. She hopes that Anna­le­na Baer­bock will bring more strength to the For­eign Minis­try, and not just hand ever­ything over to the chancellery.

Masal­la, howe­ver, does not think this will hap­pen, and pre­dicts that the chan­cel­le­ry will con­ti­nue to focus on the “big play­ers.” He belie­ves that the old divi­si­on of labor will con­ti­nue under the new government, and that Anna­le­na Baer­bock will sim­ply have to get used to it.

Ah, it’s all in the details, isn’t it?

“Peace­ful, uto­pian ver­si­on of for­eign poli­cy” is main­ly for the smal­ler coun­tries I presume.

src: click

At this point, you could teach world poli­tics to a todd­ler. Literally.

Back­ground: click