Introduction

Foreign policy is a male-dominated field. Traditionally, foreign policy has centred around the security and national interests of states, largely neglecting women's needs and perspectives in responding to peace and conflict situations (Bell, 2019: 418). The burgeoning scholarship on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) has documented how women are disproportionately affected by war, violence, displacement and poverty, but usually excluded from decision-making processes and peace negotiations (United Nations Security Council, 2003; Davies and True, 2019; Newby and O’Malley, 2021). Yet foreign policy on peacemaking has been slow to adopt a pro-gender approach that recognizes the different roles and experiences of women and men in conflict and post-conflict contexts, and that supports the participation and empowerment of women at all levels of diplomacy. There has been a growing call for reinvigoration of foreign policy to meaningfully implement existing international instruments, such as WPS, and prioritize gender equality in peacemaking efforts. In this chapter, I argue that by prioritizing the voices and experiences of women and other marginalized groups, foreign policy can be transformed into a powerful tool for promoting gender equality and empowering peacemaking efforts around the world.

Pro-gender approaches to peacemaking are essential for achieving sustainable and inclusive peace, but they face many challenges and limitations in foreign policy. Gender approaches refer to the ways of incorporating gender perspectives and promoting gender equality in all aspects of peacebuilding, from conflict prevention and resolution to post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation. Peacemaking is the process of negotiating and implementing agreements to end or prevent armed conflicts, involving official and unofficial actors at different levels. Foreign policy is the set of goals and actions that a state pursues in its relations with other states and international actors, often influenced by domestic and global factors. Despite the adoption of the WPS agenda by the United Nations Security Council, which recognizes the importance of women's participation and protection in conflict resolution and peacebuilding and the growing pro-gender norms in foreign policies, there is still a gap between rhetoric and reality in many peacemaking contexts.

There is a gap in foreign policy about promoting gender meaningfully in peace processes. Karen Smith (2020: 131) argues that foreign policy analysis (FPA) has generally left out the sex of the decision-maker and the gendered nature of the decision-making process.