Polis kocht! Feministische Außenpolitik

In dialog: Feminist foreign policy - a civil society response to the shift to the right and anti-feminist backlash?

We encourage exchange and networking. We continue to develop feminist foreign policy in dialog with civil society, citizens and international partners.
(Guideline 10 of the Federal Foreign Office guidelines)

In February 2023, the Federal Foreign Office officially adopted a feminist foreign policy under the leadership of Green Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. Baerbock thus sent a strong signal for gender equality and human rights. At the same time, however, it also became clear that a massive shift to the right was shaping the political landscape: feminist approaches were defamed, the scope for action narrowed and the pressure on civil society voices grew noticeably. With the new conservative federal government, feminist foreign policy was finally completely abolished - a step backwards that is not an isolated case. For example, Sweden, the first country to implement a feminist foreign policy, also abolished it with a change of government to a conservative government in 2022. The abolition of feminist foreign policy is thus an example of the global anti-feminist backlash that is deliberately undermining equality, democracy and international solidarity. In our event, we would like to take this diagnosis of the times as a starting point, promote joint dialog between different groups and actors and discuss together what we can do as civil society and how we can create joint solutions. In the face of right-wing threats and a time in which many feminist voices and organizations are being put under pressure and threatened, we as civil society, among others, are called upon to stand up resolutely - through clear counter-narratives, international networking and demonstrating that diversity and justice are indispensable for democracy, peace and sustainable development.

What specific threats does the shift to the right pose for feminist politics? How can civil society defend and expand its capacity to act? And what strategies are necessary to effectively counter the anti-feminist attacks in Germany and worldwide?


Our experts are:
Marieke Fröhlich is a consultant in the field of "Humanitarian Aid, Peace and Participation of All" at VENRO - Association of Development Policy and Humanitarian Aid of German Non-Governmental Organizations.
Barbara Mittelhammer is an independent political analyst. She advises and works with ministries, parliamentarians, think tanks, foundations, international and civil society organizations. She works and publishes on the conceptualization and application of feminist foreign policy, including in the context of Iran and Syria, human security, gender and the role of civil society in foreign and security policy.


As always, we will be preparing vegan dishes for the event.

Polis180 is a predominantly volunteer-run think tank for foreign and European policy. It was founded in 2015 with the vision of enabling young and inclusive approaches to policymaking. Since then, we have over 600 members. Join us for an engaging exchange of views as we highlight and discuss lessons learned from civil societies across Europe in the fight against the rise of autocratic structures and human rights violations.

Polis kocht! is a format for exchange between young people, activists, politicians and academics in foreign and European policy. We invite you to cook together and discuss afterwards.
together. The dishes we cook will be directly related to the topic we are discussing.