Feminist Foreign Policy and the Battle for Civil Society in Europe

We intervene in a growing yet underdeveloped literature that acknowledges the
importance of transnational links between state officials (diplomats) and civil society. To study these links, we focus on the contentious issue of gender in Europe. More specifically, we center on the Swedish Feminist Foreign Policy as pursued and contextualized with respect to the civil societies of Poland and Hungary, where gender equality is highly contested. Using a relational perspective, with focus on the interaction between diplomats and civil society actors, our questions center on both the concrete network relations and the discursive interactions and adaptations as the FFP is negotiated and interpreted in the local context:

1. What is the character of the networks between Swedish diplomats and Polish and Hungarian civil society actors?
2. How is the FFP framed and discursively adapted?

To answer these questions, we use a combination of network analyses and discourse analyses, based on interviews with diplomats and civil society actors in Poland and Hungary, public talks, written policies and public diplomacy texts.