C12(b) - Feminist Perspectives on Canadian Foreign Policy II
Date: Jun 3 | Time: 02:00pm to 03:30pm | Location:
Chair/Président/Présidente : David Black (Dalhousie University)
Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : David Black (Dalhousie University)
Session Abstract: In 2003, Claire Turenne Sjolander, Deborah Stienstra and Heather Smith expressed hope that their volume, Feminist Perspectives on Canadian Foreign Policy (OUP 2003, 11), would “encourage our students to ask questions, and thus become our teachers, and to never, never, accept the received wisdom of ages without first launching the challenge: ‘but what about gender?’”. The proposed panel takes up this challenge and asks about gender and feminist perspectives across a variety of issue areas. The first paper problematizes the ways in which orthodox approaches to foreign policy analysis exclude Indigeneity and gender and asks how changing power dynamics involving Indigenous self-determination are playing out in Canada and how they affect Canadian national security and foreign policy more broadly. The second paper draws on autoethnography and participant observation to analyze the possibilities and limitations of GBA+ implementation in Canadian defence policy while the third paper on the panel focuses on the trade component of the Trudeau government’s feminist foreign policy commitments which have been largely over-looked by critical analysts. The final paper also focuses on gender based analysis in the Canadian Armed Forces and shows how pre-existing ideas about gender integration circumscribe the available rhetorical frames through which norm entrepreneurs can achieve policy buy-in. Taken together the papers on this panel reminds us of the value of interrogating multiple sites and sources of Canadian foreign policy through feminist lens. This is the second of two linked panels on feminist perspectives on Canadian foreign policy.
Gender and Indigenous Political Agency in Canada’s International Policies: Leah Sarson (Dalhousie University)
Abstract: In March 2019, the former parliamentary secretary to the minister of public safety and emergency preparedness acknowledged that white supremacy and neo-Nazism are a potent threat to Canada’s national security, noting the link between such violence and misogyny. This pronouncement and the subsequent small research investment can be analyzed as part of the Liberal government’s emphasis on both feminist policy and Indigenous rights. This paper frames violence against Indigenous women in Canada in the context of national security. Building on work linking self-determination for Indigenous peoples and gender justice and employing tools of feminist International Relations, this paper looks beyond orthodox approaches to foreign policy analysis that exclude Indigeneity and gender to acknowledge Indigenous women’s agency in the realm of Canadian global politics. Refuting state-centric assumptions of which and how actors affect International Relations, this paper asks how changing power dynamics involving Indigenous self-determination are playing out in Canada and how they affect Canadian national security and foreign policy more broadly. It ultimately argues that the transformative political effects of Indigenous demands for both self-determination and gender justice challenge how Canada realizes its foreign policy objectives and offers a new approach to understanding who counts in Canadian foreign policy.
Between Aspiration and Reality: GBA+ in Canadian Defence Policy: Maya Eichler (Mount Saint Vincent University)
Abstract: In 2017, Canada’s Chief of Defence Staff committed to integrate Gender-Based Analysis “Plus” (GBA+) into all military planning and operations. All members of the Canadian Armed Forces are expected to develop competency in GBA+ and be able to apply it in their day-to-day work, while being supported by Gender Focal Points and Gender Advisors. This paper sheds light on efforts to integrate GBA+ from the vantage point of a DND-MINDS (Department of National Defence-Mobilizing Insights in Defence and Security) funded Canadian defence network, the Defence and Security Foresight Group which includes a GBA+ Convener group. We describe the process of developing a GBA+ toolkit for members of the network, responding to GBA+ specific questions from DND/CAF, and providing GBA+ applications to Network members’ working papers and policy briefs. Methodologically, this paper draws on autoethnography and participant observation to analyze the possibilities and limitations of GBA+ implementation in Canadian defence policy. We posit that observations and reflections at the micro level of this DND MINDS-funded defence network offer useful insights into the challenges of applying GBA+ at the macro level of DND/CAF. This paper is embedded within feminist research on gender mainstreaming in Canada (Scala and Paterson 2018), feminist research on gender and defence policy (Lane 2018), and research on GBA+ at DND/CAF (Johnstone and Momani 2019). It provides insights into how gender and intersectional perspectives are and can be integrated into defence policy, and the role of external researchers in contributing to gender mainstreaming efforts.
Gender and Canadian Trade Policy: Laura Macdonald (Carleton University)
Abstract: In addition to other feminist commitments, the Canadian Liberal government of Justin Trudeau has committed itself to adopting a Progressive Trade Agenda (PTA), subsequently re-named an “inclusive approach to trade”. This commitment was pursued by including a gender chapter in “modernized” Free Trade Agreements with Chile and Israel. Chrystia Freeland’s promise to push for a gender (and indigenous) chapter in the re-negotiated North American Free Trade Agreement was quickly dropped, however, in the light of strong opposition from the Trump administration. The government remains committed to including gender chapters in other new or renegotiated agreements, including a possible FTA with the Mercosur bloc and has carried out a GTA+ analysis of the possible gender impacts of such an agreement. The trade component of the Trudeau government’s feminist foreign policy commitments has been largely over-looked by critical analysts. In this paper, I analyse the evolution of Canadian government’s approach to gender and trade policy, beginning with early efforts in the 1990s, which disappeared under the Harper government. I will examine the limitations of the strategy which is based on an impoverished understanding of the gendered impacts of trade both in Canada and among our trading partners, and on underlying assumptions about the indispensability of further trade liberalization despite its limited capacity to address the needs and concerns of women and other marginalized groups.
How do Feminist Norms Travel: Can the Military speak Feminist without Making the Feminist Speak Military?: Victoria Tait (Carleton University)
Abstract: The Government of Canada defines Gender Based Analysis as “an overarching goal [to] ensure government policy, legislation and regulations are sensitive to the different impacts that decisions can have on men and women” (Canada 2015). However, the practice of gender mainstreaming is far more fraught than the GOC definition suggests; I argue this is particularly true in institutions like the Canadian Armed Forces where gender integration policy initiatives have already been introduced (Lombardo and Mergaert 2013, Benschop and Verloo 2006). By setting the historical memory and discourse of the institution, pre-existing ideas about gender integration circumscribe the available rhetorical frames through which norm entrepreneurs can achieve policy buy-in by pre-emptively biasing institutional actors and by “bundling” those norms with a series of other unpopular policy reforms. I will demonstrate this using the implementation of UNSCR 1325 and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in the Canadian Armed Forces; research which draws on my interviews with CAF military personnel and analysis of extant CAF policy. I posit that the Canadian Armed Forces is in a uniquely challenging position by virtue of its status as an early norm adopter, and that these challenges differ from those of NATO forces that are uninitiated to gender integration.