Uma política externa feminista? A Alemanha demonstra que é possível - GZero Media,

 

What is feminist foreign policy?

   

Alles liebe zum Frauentag! To mark International Women's Day we delve into feminist foreign policy. Which countries have adopted the gender-focused framework that shapes how they interact with other states, and how does the policy play out in practice? 

Germany made headlines this week when Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock unveiled a new feminist foreign policy framework, outlining Berlin's efforts to boost female participation in international affairs. It directs an additional 12 billion euros in development funds to further global gender equality and says that Berlin will work to ensure that European foreign policy focuses more on the needs of women worldwide.

But what is a feminist foreign policy, and what do proponents and critics of the framework have to say about it?

First, some background. In 1995, then-first lady Hillary Clinton declared in Beijing that “women’s rights are human rights,” publicly advocating that gender equality be a core principle in international politics.

Since then, a growing number of political influencers have pushed for a radical overhaul of how states interact with each other, arguing that the pursuit of gender equality should be at the heart of all international politics.

While there is no uniform approach to its implementation – countries have interpreted the framework differently – there are areas of overlap, including the idea that increasing the number of women working in foreign policy reduces conflict and enhances peaceful outcomes. A look at the impact of having women negotiators, mediators, and witnesses involved in 182 peace agreements from 1989-2011, for example, shows that those deals involving females were 35% more likely to survive at least 15 years, according to a report by the International Peace Institute.

There’s broad agreement that gender equality at home, including increased female participation in the workforce, at the negotiating table, and in policy-making, boosts security at home andabroad. As a result, there's been an uptick in female participation in legislatures in many countries, while some institutions have introducedgender quotas in politics. The European Union, for instance, started calling for a minimum of 50% women in all its decision-making positions back in 2020 – and a whopping 85% of women in decisions about development aid.

But how do these policies play out in practice? Read more here and tell us what you think.

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Solidariedade com as mulheres, e todos os homens do Irã, dominado por uma teocracia impiedosa (Signal, GZERO Media)

 Centenas de mulheres e homens já morreram, pela repressão do regime teocrático do Irã, inclusive um primeiro condenado à morte "por ofender Deus".

Is the West doing enough to help Iranians?Signal, GZERO Media, November 15, 2022

   

The actions of Iranian protesters over the past two months – particularly women – have been awe-inspiring. Despite the prospect of incarceration, and worse, they’ve refused to kowtow to the bushy-eyebrowed mullahs calling the shots in the Islamic Republic. Fear of execution looms large, but Iranian women continue to abandon their headscarves and chant in the streets for regime change.

Things are only getting more dangerous after Iran’s parliament recently voted in favor of the death penalty for protesters. The first such sentences were handed down in recent days. Indeed, the stakes could not be higher, and yet hopeful Iranians continue to risk their lives.

As the government crackdown intensifies – there have been 300 deaths and 15,000 arrests to date – is the West doing enough to support the protesters in their bid for freedom?

Defying the despots. Iranians took to the streets in September in the aftermath of the in-custody death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who was arrested and reportedly beaten by Iran’s “morality police” for improperly donning her hijab. 

Many young Iranians have died in custody over the past decade, but Amini’s story has galvanized a generation of millennial and Gen-Z women who have no recollection of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought down a corrupt Shah and have zero affinity for the mullahs who rule their lives.

As the human rights situation in Iran deteriorates, what’s the West doing about it?

Suit-clad politicians in Brussels and Washington have imparted all the right platitudes expressing support for Iran’s women-led movement. 

More substantially, the US and EU, the UK, and Canada have expanded on Western sanctions in recent weeks – in place for the better part of a decade – aimed at stopping Iran from further developing its nuclear program. The Western alliance has sanctioned a host of officials from the Islamic Republican Guard Corps, a key unit of Iran's armed forces, as well as high-ranking government officials and regime loyalists.

These new measures come on top of long-term sanctions that have sought to cut Tehran off from the global financial system in hopes of strangling Iran’s most lucrative export – oil – and bringing the regime to its knees. 

Still, while these established measures remain in place, the Biden administration has so far been unwilling to up the ante by implementing a cohesive strategy for further inflicting pain on the Iranian energy sector. Consider that in the fiscal year leading up to March 2023, Iran is expected to export 1.4 billion barrels per day, compared to around 500,000 bpd or less when former President Donald Trump was in the White House and enforced a “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran. 

This suggests, analysts say, that the West, long trying to keep the dialogue open with Tehran in hopes of reviving the now-defunct nuclear deal, has overseen a lax enforcement system. 

Many observers point to the latest developments in Ukraine as a case in point. Despite Western sanctions intended to stop Iran from developing its military-industrial complex, Iran has succeeded in building one of the world’s biggest drone fleets – and is supplying the Russians with thousands of sophisticated “killer drones” that the Kremlin is using to pummel Ukraine. 

What’s more, debris from the battlefield suggests that Iranians have been able to rely on Chinese copies of Western parts to build their drone stockpile, while they’ve also acquired Western-made parts to power their drones. Clearly, Western sanctions haven’t had the intended effect of cutting Iran off and making it squirm. (To be sure, the EU has recently imposed sanctions on Iran drone makers, while the US sanctioned Iranian flight companies for helping transfer drones to Russia. Still, it comes after Iran had already developed one of the best arms games in the business.)

Moreover, that countries including China and the United Arab Emirates have had no qualms about flouting Western sanctions on Iranian energy exports suggests that the perceived cost of buying and selling Iranian oil has waned. 

What more could be done? The US could sanction Iran’s drone program and increase the pace of its ad-hoc sanctions regime. What’s more, while hundreds of Russian diplomats have been expelled from Europe and the US, many Iranian dignitaries continue to get the royal treatment in global forums.

Looking ahead. The UN Human Rights Council says it will hold a special session to discuss Iran on Nov. 24. Meanwhile, the world's largest and most influential economies are currently gathering at the G-20 summit to talk about all things geopolitics. Will their response to Iran be united and stern? Don’t hold your breath.

Agressão da Rússia contra a Ucrânia: reflexos na oferta agrícola mundial - GZero

 War of the Sunflower Superpowers

GZero Media, March 16, 2022

   

Vladimir Putin’s decision to wage war has already brought destruction to the places and people of Ukraine, but it could also put millions of people at risk far from cities like Kyiv, Kharkov, and Mariupol. That’s because the war is making key food staples around the world more scarce and pricier, raising the prospect of food shortages and social unrest.

“Countries as far afield as Nigeria, Yemen, and Bangladesh are already feeling the effects of reduced grain exports,” says Peter Ceretti, a senior analyst with Eurasia Group. “But the knock-on effects could be much worse: soaring fertilizer prices, export bans, and a failed planting season in Ukraine could all mean that millions around the world go hungry.”

How bad is it? Prices for basic foodstuffs such as wheat, sunflower oil, and cornhave hit record highs in recent days, as has the UN’s food price index, which measures the cost of several key staples together. With scant near-term prospects for peace, a global food crunch is coming.

The Ukraine war has made a bad situation worse. Even before the Russian invasion, the world was facing higher prices for energy, food, and shipping as post-pandemic demand roared back faster than supplies. The war has compounded all of that.

This is, in fact, a war between two superpowers … of agriculture. The world’s number one exporter of wheat has invaded the world’s number five exporter of the grain – together Russia and Ukraine provide about 30% of wheat in global markets. Ukraine has now banned exports entirely as a wartime security measure, and financial sanctions on Russia are making global buyers wary of purchasing Russian bushels at all.

The sunflower side of it. That yellow band on the Ukrainian flag is meant to depict the country’s vast golden fields of sunflowers. Ukraine is the single largest exporter of sunflower oil, accounting for more than 40% of the global supply. Russia isn’t far behind at about a quarter of the market. Sunflower oil is a crucial cooking oil for households in many developing countries (and it’s also the source of the crisp in potato chips.) The war has already halted activity at Ukraine’s sunflower crushing plants, causing a knock-on surge in demand for substitutes like palm oil, which is now also seeing soaring prices.

Fertile soil for a bigger crisis. What do farmers need to produce wheat and other crops? Aside from sun, land, water, and love, they need fertilizer, and lots of it. Who is the number one exporter of fertilizer? Russia. Moscow has already banned fertilizer exports, raising production costs for farmers from Boise to Brazil.

Who gets hurt the most? Higher food prices rattle the kitchen table in all countries, but those on the brink are the most vulnerable. More than 800 million people are already food insecure, says the UN, warning that 44 million people in 38 different countries could be pushed into outright famine this year.

For the Middle East and North Africa, it’s a perfect storm of challenges, says Ahmed Morsy, a Middle East analyst at Eurasia Group. “It’s three or four different pressures at the same time, from food and energy prices to global inflation at large. It’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen.”

As for food, the region is heavily dependent on Russian and Ukrainian grain. In Egypt, the largest single importer of Russian and Ukrainian wheat, market prices for bread have soared 50% already this month, with the government warning that wheat reserves are dwindling. Crisis-wracked Lebanon is facing shortages as well, while Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria are all on edge. War-ravaged Yemen, meanwhile, depends on the two countries for about 40% of its wheat imports, and is already facing famine.