“Who run the world?” : Comparing Sweden’s international behavior before and after the construction of a feminist foreign policy

Sammanfattning: Viewing Sweden’s feminist foreign policy as a paradigmatically feminist and isolated case of domestic identity formulation, this thesis poses the following research question: to what extent does rapid identity construction affect state behavior? It assumes that a feminist state (en)genders the security concept and establishes interests in promoting (en)gendered security – which denotes the positive peace effects from female participation and protection – as an international security norm and thereby gain utility, security and legitimacy. Its constructivist hypothesis claims that the feminist identity has increased Sweden’s international promotion of (en)gendered security. This is tested through a quantitative content analysis of the current feminist and two previous Swedish governments’ promotion of (en)gendered security in the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy. The statistically significant results show that the feminist government is substantially more likely to promote (en)gendered security externally. The constructivist hypothesis therefore holds in the paper’s two critical settings: its hardline security context and assumption that rapid identity construction immediately affects behavior. The results are thus generalized to the population of identity formulation and confirm the Feminist Foreign Policy as a feminist ideal type, and thereby answer the research question. Overall, these abstract inferences have positive implications for international security.