Beyond values – How feminist foreign policy serves strategic interests

Policy Brief

Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP) is often championed for its normative promise — advancing gender equality, fostering peace, and promoting inclusive governance. Yet as more states formally adopt FFPs, its relevance extends beyond values into the realm of strategy.

In this latest policy brief from the FEPS–FES Policy Brief Series on Feminist Foreign Policy, Leonie Stamm, Research Analyst at the German Council on Foreign Relations, explores how FFP can also serve strategic state interests. Drawing on four key rationales — efficiency, leadership, reputation, and alliances — the paper reveals how FFP can strengthen policymaking, bolster international cooperation, and enhance global standing.

The brief highlights that FFP offers practical advantages beyond its normative goals: it delivers measurable results, strengthens international leadership, and enhances a state’s reputation for progressive, values-driven action. It also fosters alliances among like-minded states and civil society, creating networks that expand influence and enable more coordinated global responses.

To unlock these opportunities, the author urges policymakers to pair FFP’s normative aims with strategic implementation: by investing in evidence, institutional reform, and partnerships that enhance credibility, coherence, and impact. It calls for deeper civil society engagement, stronger cross-party and regional cooperation, and alliances that turn feminist principles into coordinated, actionable policy.

By unpacking these motivations, the brief helps policymakers, advocates, and civil society actors better understand the full spectrum of FFP’s potential and its risks. It calls for approaches that leverage strategic benefits without losing sight of the feminist principles at FFP’s core.

Published as part of the FEPS–FES Policy Brief Series on Feminist Foreign Policy, this timely release comes ahead of the 4th Ministerial Conference on FFP, hosted by France on 22–23 October, in which FEPS took an active part in the session “Exploring best practices in government-civil society collaboration“.

FEMINIST FOREIGN POLICY SERIES

The Feminist Foreign Policy Progressive Voices Collective (FFPPVC) questions traditional approaches to foreign policy to enable an alternative account of foreign relations from the standpoint of the most disadvantaged. The work of the Collective provides insights into what might be the most challenging questions regarding feminist foreign policy today. You can explore our Policy Brief series HERE. 

The Collective is co-chaired by Ann Linde, former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden and Machris Cabreros, Co-Chair of the network and Coordinator at Progressive Alliance.

The project aims to advance concrete policy recommendations and builds on a multistakeholder feminist foreign policy community, which will gather feminist policy experts 

For more information regarding this event, please do not hesitate to contact Laeticia Thissen, Senior Policy Analyst on Gender Equality, FEPS (laeticia.thissen@feps-europe.eu) or Julia Wild, Project Officer, FEPS (julia.wild@feps-europe.eu).