Diffusion of a values-based policy: Germany's feminist foreign policy in European newspapers

• Autor(a) principal: Agamez, Paula Andrea Batista
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/30129
• topic: Feminist foreign policy; Germany; European Union; media; Norm diffusion; Política externa feminista; Alemanha; União Europeia; Difusão de normas

This dissertation examines the portrayal of Germany’s Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP) in EU Member States’ newspapers. Sweden was the first country to adopt an FFP in 2014. Since then, at least ten countries adopted such a policy, including Germany, in 2021. In the meantime, Sweden abandoned its foreign policy centred on feminist values. We, thus, consider Germany as a norm entrepreneur aiming to diffuse the values of the FFP to other countries by using the EU and other organisations as a platform for its promotion. We argue that as norms do not emerge in a vacuum, new norms must be seen at least as salient, legitimate, and coherent to have a chance of being accepted. Media can have a relevant role in constructing external images of foreign policies. By setting an agenda, the media decides which issues readers should discuss and think of and through “framing”, media can position the issue favourably or negatively, influencing readers. This study utilises reflexive thematic analysis as a method for the analysis of 59 articles from quality newspapers from 11 EU member states. The results show that Germany’s FFP faces challenges regarding its salience in newspapers. The number of newspapers that framed the FFP as incoherent or illegitimate is insignificant. Therefore, overall, these aspects do not pose a substantial challenge to that policy. Nonetheless, the newspapers which mainly framed the FFP as illegitimate are from countries in which feminism is contested.