In July 2023, UN Secretary-General (UNSG) António Guterres launched his policy brief “A New Agenda for Peace” as an input to preparations for the 2024 Summit for the Future. The Agenda highlights, in no uncertain terms, the relationship that exists between increasing militarisation and conflict and instability in the international system. While feminists have been advocating tirelessly for a recognition of this fact for decades, action by states to tackle the root causes of violence within and between states remains overwhelmingly insufficient. Instead, governments continue to spend record amounts on weapons and militarism at the expense of crucial initiatives for peacebuilding, sustainable development, gender equality, and democracy. Against the backdrop of declining international support for disarmament initiatives and arms control frameworks, increased political polarisation, weakened multilateral structures, increasing authoritarianism, and democratic backsliding, these facts make the achievement of peace appear more elusive than ever before.
However, as the UNSG argues, “if war is a choice, then peace can be too”. Feminist perspectives offer an alternative approach to policy frameworks that prioritise power, domination, and the procurement of weapons over the well-being of people and our environment. They provide a critical evaluation of rhetoric that presents conflict as natural or inevitable to expose the structural foundations of instability in our international system. In doing so, feminist analysis illuminates pathways for change. It highlights the need for policy and processes rooted in care for people and our communities – leaving no one behind.
Together with the Robert Bosch Foundation, CFFP will implement a project that recognises and meaningfully enables feminist activists and thinkers to drive change towards a feminist world order that actively fosters peace.