Smart Power: Bridging Inconstancies in Sweden’s Feminist Foreign Policy

Abstract: Feminist foreign policy initiatives have since they first appeared weathered criticism when put in relation to an active weapons export often to non-democratic states violating women’s rights. This paper then examines the Swedish case by using argumentation analysis as method to test the moral commitments of Sweden’s foreign policy initiative against recent arms deals. It was made to explore the possibility of the added ‘feminist’ being linked to alternative inducements. By introducing the concepts of hard, soft, and smart power, the analysis was then carried out in search of explanations for the investigated discrepancy. A tug-of-war model was developed based on all theory used to both help illustrate the investigated lacuna, but also the opposingly pulling forces of Sweden’s foreign policy. The findings suggest that any inconsistencies relating the morally anchored commitments of Sweden’s feminist foreign policy and their active weapons industry can be understood through the concept of smart power. Being a concept aimed at doing just that, combining soft and hard power resources to gap discrepancies in foreign policies, the concept helps us better understand why the moral obligations of Sweden’s foreign policy will everlastingly apply conditionally.