On the occasion of the 64th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (cancelled) 1014 welcomed two highly acclaimed voices of a new generation of policy strategists, challengers and activists.

Kristina Lunz and Pam Campos-Palma took on a debate on the importance of a feminist approach to foreign and security policy, why activism and diplomacy are no opposites, and the necessities to rethink power in governments and international organizations for the sake of everybody’s freedom.

Pam Campos-Palma is an impactful political strategist focused on peace and security, movement building, and defeating the threat of ethno-nationalism at home and across borders. An often consulted and trusted adviser to national-level leaders, organizations, think tanks, and campaigns, she is known for expertly bridging grassroots and grasstop worlds and bringing foreign policy to life through organizing, winning narrative strategy, and leadership development of war-affected peoples. She has been recognized internationally as a transformative leader and made big impacts shifting military-affiliated representation and change in politics, policy, and advocacy. Pam served in the U.S. Air Force for over a decade as an intelligence analyst specializing in operations, force protection, and counter-violent extremism with time in Germany, Kyrgyzstan, Iraq and Afghanistan. She began her public service career in the immigrant rights movement, served as a gubernatorial appointee on the Board of Trustees for Oregon's largest public university, and as a consultant to international NGO’s and social ventures. She was named a 2019 Atlantik-Brücke Young Leader, a "Top 40 Under 40 Latinos in Foreign Policy" by Huffington Post, and a 2018 Champion of Change by the UN. Pam has been featured on NBC, CNN, BBC, and NPR, among others, and holds a Masters in Public Administration from NYU in International Policy and Management. She is a Defense Council member of the Truman National Security Project, an Advisory Board member of Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security (WCAPS), and a member of the 2019 Women’s March Steering Committee. 

Kristina Lunz is the co-founder of the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy, a research and advocacy organisation promoting a feminist approach to foreign and security policy. As an advisor to the Federal Foreign Office in Germany, until recently she built the foreign minister’s network on women’s right between Latin America, the Caribbean and Germany, ‘Unidas’. Previously she worked for the UN Development Programme in NYC and Myanmar. Kristina is an Ashoka Fellow, BMW Responsible Leader, Atlantik Brücke Young Leader, and Forbes 30 under 30 (Europe as well as Germany/Austria/Switzerland).

Kristina has been engaged in feminist activism for several years. In 2014 she initiated a campaign against sexism in Europe’s biggest newspaper; she was one of the 20 activists of the intersectional grassroots campaign “Against sexualized violence and racism. Anytime. Anywhere. #ausnahmslos” after sexualized attacks in Cologen New Year’s Eve 2015/16 for which she and her team were awarded the Clara-Zetkin Prize for Political Intervention; and she further advised UN Women National Committee Germany on the ‘No Means No’ Campaign in 2016 to change the German rape law. The law was changed the same year.

Coming from a working-class family from the country side, educational inequality is another topic Kristina is passionate about. Kristina regularly speaks publicly about foreign policy, feminism, activism, leadership, power, inequality and entrepreneurship.

Kristina holds two master’s: one in Global Governance and Diplomacy (M.Sc) from the University of Oxford for which she received a full Oxford scholarship; and a second one from University College London in Global Governance and Ethics (M.Sc).

Photos: Rafa Ayoub