Retrieved 2: Gender in Arms Trade & Defence
How does conflict impact women and vulnerable social groups? Are their needs being taken into account in defence policy and in arms trade? Member of the Bundestag, Merle Spellerberg, and Head of the Gender and Disarmament Programme at UNIDIR, Renata Hessmann Dalaqua, discuss the disproportionate impacts of conflict on women and vulnerable groups, and suggest what a feminist foreign policy can do to bring us closer to a more peaceful world. We discuss the gender impacts of nuclear testing, and broach lacking gender parity and representation in defence policy, as well as how an unregulated arms trade can exacerbate gender-based violence.
In the series of podcasts ‘Retrieved’, by the Heinrich Böll Foundation - Thessaloniki office, we bring together experts, policy-makers and members of the civil society. We take a closer look at feminist foreign policy and understand what it means for the peace-building, migration, defence and many other policy areas.
Feminism and patriarchy are terms we tend to encounter in discussions about the way societies are organised internally. And yet, foreign policy, just like most fields of policy-making, is heavily affected by patriarchal structures and prejudice. However, its future can be better. With the help of policy advisors, journalists, researchers, and politicians, we examine how feminist foreign policy can reflect the interests of all genders and often overlooked stakeholders: from peace-building and climate, to migration and defence policy, we look to examples from across the EU that show how this bold new model benefits society at large - and the challenges on the horizon. Can feminism retrieve a new foreign policy mantra out of the dusty ideas of the past?