Continuing Security Council Resolution 1325 in India: Thinking Feminist Foreign Policy

As a middle-ranking power that projects its vision internationally and aspires for global recognition, India is embedded in its specific traditions and presents itself as a voice of the Global South. India promotes dialogue as opposed to confrontation and has from the highest level stated ‘this is not the time for war’. Peace as rhetoric and practice constitutes a feminist principle. In the light of this positioning, what would a feminist foreign policy (FFP) look like and how should it be measured? In this article, we trace recent debates on an FFP and examine how it can conceptually apply to Indian foreign policy. Policymakers who seek positive change advocate an FFP, in keeping with UN Security Council Resolutions (SCR) 1325 and others that call for the participation of women in institutions of peace, politics and security. With a focus on the case of India, we broaden the paradigm of the FFP to include internationally accepted norms like sustainable development goals and human security be part of the goals of FFP. Further, we seek to broaden the metrics of how FFP can challenge patriarchal systems and intersecting oppressions. In doing so, it is situated at the intersection of the literature on critical foreign policy analysis and postcolonial scholarship (Achilleos-Sarll, 2018, Journal of International Women’s Studies , 19[1], 34–49; Martin de Almagro & Ryan, 2019, European Journal of International Relations , 25[4], 1059–1079), with a focus on the Indian experience.