Imperial, Familial and Bureaucratic: Global Gender Logics of Bilateral Diplomacy
In this talk, Ann Towns makes the case that gender is woven into the very fabric of bilateral diplomacy.
Bilateral diplomacy is a key building block of international relations, carried out in capitals around the world by hundreds of thousands of diplomatic officials. These diplomats represent, embody and promote their states, navigating the global hierarchies and uneven terrain that permeate international relations. Towns examines the global gender logics at work in diplomacy, showing that diplomacy is not only organized around familial and bureaucratic gender logics but that the gender of bilateral diplomacy is also intimately connected with legacies of European imperialism and contemporary global hierarchies among states. The talk draws on a coming book that is the culmination and grand statement of ten years of research on the gender of diplomacy, and it will present a range of interesting empirical findings.
About the Speaker
Ann Towns is professor of political science at the University of Gothenburg and a Wallenberg Academy Fellow. She created and directs the GenDip Program on the gender of diplomacy since 2014 (https://gendip.gu.se). Her work on diplomacy was awarded a Bertha Lutz Prize in 2018 and a Susan S. Northcutt Award in 2025, both from the International Studies Association. Towns is the author of Women and States: Norms and Hierarchies in International Society (2010, Cambridge University Press) and has edited volumes such as Gendering Diplomacy and International Negotiations (2017, Palgrave MacMillan). Her research has also appeared in journals such as International Organization, European Journal of International Relations, Review of International Studies, and International Studies Quarterly.
