The Second President of the National Council, Doris Bures, together with VIDC- Global Dialogue invites to a panel event with the former Swedish Foreign Minister, Ann Linde, the co-founder of the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy, Kristina Lunz and Professor Toni Haastrup from Manchester University on the topic of feminist foreign policy.
Background
Feminist foreign policy is an innovative approach to international relations that focuses on gender equality and marginalised groups. It advocates the dismantling of patriarchal structures and power relations and places people at the centre of its decisions. Especially the crises of recent years, international political tensions and the new war events in Europe and the Middle East make a change of perspective in foreign policy necessary.
In 2014, Sweden was the first country to decide to make its foreign policy feminist in the future. The former Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde sums up the impact and challenges of Sweden's feminist foreign policy, which was cancelled after a change of government in 2022. Kristina Lunz is the founder of the Centre For Feminist Foreign Policy and takes a critical look at the German guidelines for feminist foreign policy. Toni Haastrup, Chair in Global Politics at the University of Manchester, will analyse the innovative framework that feminist foreign policy in the global South must create in order not to reproduce (neo-)colonial mistakes. Markus Müller-Schinwald, Director of Ö1-Europajournal, will moderate the evening.
Panel
Ann Linde
is the former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden. She held that office from September 2019 until October 2022. Prior to that, Ms Linde served as Minister for European Union Affairs and Trade, and from 2014 to 2016 she was State Secretary at Ministry for Home Affairs. From 2013 to 2014, she served as Head of the International Unit for the Party of European Socialists (PES), based in Brussels. She was the International Secretary of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 2000 to 2013.
In the 1980s, she worked for several non-governmental organisations and during the 1990s she was working at the Swedish Government Offices, holding both political and non-political positions. In the year 2021 Ms Linde held the position as the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office.
Kristina Lunz
is Co-CEO of the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy (CFFP), which she co-founded in 2018. She is also a member of the Advisory Group of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations Goalkeepers Initiative on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In 2019/20, Kristina Lunz was an external advisor at the German Foreign Office, where she established the feminist network Unidas for former German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. She also worked on gender, peace and extremism for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Yangon, Myanmar, as well as NYC and worked for the local NGO Sisma Mujer in Bogotá, Colombia, on Women, Peace and Security (WPS).
She is a Young Leader of the Atlantic Bridge, Ashoka Fellow, BMW Foundation Responsible Leader, Handelsblatt/BCG "Vordenker*innen 2020" and was one of Focus Magazine's "100 Women of the Year 2020".
Kristina Lunz holds two Master's degrees, both from University College London (MSc Global Governance and Ethics) and the University of Oxford (MSc Global Governance and Diplomacy). In 2022, her bestseller "The Future of Foreign Policy is Feminist" was published (in German; publisher: Ullstein/Econ Verlag).
Toni Haastrup
is Chair in Global Politics at the University of Manchester since September 2023. She holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Edinburgh.
She is an award-winning teacher and researcher and a 2022 recipient of the Emma Goldman Award from the FLAX Foundation for contributions to feminist research and knowledge in Europe, and the Emma Goldman Fellowship of the Vienna Institute for Human Sciences.
Her research interrogates the manifestation of power hierarchies in global politics, with research interests encompassing a wide range of topics within international studies, including peace and security in Africa, feminist, postcolonial and decolonial approaches to international relations, and regional and global governance – she has published extensively in these areas.
In addition to her academic work, Toni frequently works with government organs and international organisations, offering expertise on themes linked to the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda and Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP).
Markus Müller-Schinwald
is a foreign affairs editor at the Austrian national public service broadcaster ORF. He is responsible for the weekly magazine on European affairs, Europajournal, which is broadcasted on the radio station Ö1.