How does conflict impact women and vulnerable social groups? Are their needs being taken into account in defence policy and in arms trade? Member of the Bundestag, Merle Spellerberg, and Head of the Gender and Disarmament Programme at UNIDIR, Renata Hessmann Dalaqua, discuss the disproportionate impacts of conflict on women and vulnerable groups, and suggest what a feminist foreign policy can do to bring us closer to a more peaceful world. We discuss the gender impacts of nuclear testing, and broach lacking gender parity and representation in defence policy, as well as how an unregulated arms trade can exacerbate gender-based violence.

In the series of podcasts ‘Retrieved’, by the Heinrich Böll Foundation - Thessaloniki office, we bring together experts, policy-makers and members of the civil society. We take a closer look at feminist foreign policy and understand what it means for the peace-building, migration, defence and many other policy areas.