Women as Foreign Policy Leaders: National Security and Gender Politics in Superpower America

281 Pages·2018·13.61 MB·English

by  Sylvia B Bashevkin

Women as Foreign Policy Leaders
ii
Oxford Studies in Gender and International Relations
Series editors: J. Ann Tickner, University of Southern California, and
Laura Sjoberg, University of Florida
Windows of Opportunity: How Women Gender, Sex, and the Postnational
Seize Peace Negotiations for Political Defense: Militarism and Peacekeeping
Change Annica Kronsell
Miriam J. Anderson
The Beauty Trade: Youth, Gender, and
Women as Foreign Policy Fashion Globalization
Leaders: National Security and Angela B. V. McCracken
Gender Politics in Superpower America
Rape Loot Pillage: The Political Economy
Sylvia Bashevkin
of Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict
Enlisting Masculinity: The Construction Sara Meger
of Gender in U.S. Military Recruiting
From Global to Grassroots: The European
Advertising during the All-Volunteer
Union, Transnational Advocacy, and
Force
Combating Violence against Women
Melissa T. Brown
Celeste Montoya
The Politics of Gender Justice at the
Who Is Worthy of Protection? Gender-
International Criminal Court: Legacies
Based Asylum
and Legitimacy
and U.S. Immigration Politics
Louise Chappell
Meghana Nayak
Cosmopolitan Sex Workers: Women and
Revisiting Gendered States: Feminist
Migration in a Global City
Imaginings of the State
Christine B. N. Chin
in International Relations
Intelligent Compassion: Feminist Swati Parashar, J. Ann Tickner, and
Critical Methodology in the Women’s Jacqui True
International League for Peace and
Gender, UN Peacebuilding, and the
Freedom
Politics of Space: Locating Legitimacy
Catia Cecilia Confortini
Laura J. Shepherd
Complicit Sisters: Gender and Women’s
A Feminist Voyage through International
Issues across North-South Divides
Relations
Sara de Jong
J. Ann Tickner
Gender and Private Security in Global
The Political Economy of Violence
Politics
against Women
Maya Eichler
Jacqui True
Scandalous Economics: Gender and the
Queer International
Politics of Financial Crises
Relations: Sovereignty, Sexuality and
Aida A. Hozić and Jacqui True
the Will to Knowledge
Equal Opportunity Cynthia Weber
Peacekeeping: Women, Peace, and
Bodies of Violence: Theorizing Embodied
Security in Post- Conflict States
Subjects in International Relations
Sabrina Karim and Kyle Beardsley
Lauren B. Wilcox
Women as Foreign
Policy Leaders
National Security and Gender Politics
in Superpower America
Sylvia Bashevkin
1
iv
1
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.
© Sylvia Bashevkin 2018
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction
rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above.
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Bashevkin, Sylvia., author.
Title: Women as foreign policy leaders : national security and gender
politics in superpower America / Sylvia Bashevkin.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2018. |
Series: Oxford studies in gender and international relations |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017055645 (print) | LCCN 2018000702 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780190875381 (Updf) | ISBN 9780190875398 (Epub) |
ISBN 9780190875374 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Women diplomats— United States. | Women cabinet
officers— United States. | Kirkpatrick, Jeane J. | Albright, Madeleine
Korbel. | Rice, Condoleezza, 1954– | Clinton, Hillary Rodham | National
security— United States. | United States— Foreign relations— Decision
making. | United States— Foreign relations— 1981–1989. |
United States— Foreign relations— 1989–
Classification: LCC JZ1480 (ebook) | LCC JZ1480 .B37 2018 (print) |
DDC 327.730092/ 52— dc23
LC record available at https:// lccn.loc.gov/ 2017055645
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Acknowledgments xi
1. Introduction 1
2. Interpreting Women, War, and Feminism 31
3. Hawk in the Cold War Twilight 58
4. Taking Charge of the New World Disorder 95
5. Preemption in the Wake of 9/ 11 132
6. Women’s Security as National Security 169
7. Conclusion 205
Notes 231
References 233
Index 255
vi
PREFACE
Beyond the sleek lobby and gift shop, visitors enter a wide gallery. It’s the
last day of the Denver Art Museum exhibition in 2012 called “Read My
Pins,” showcasing hundreds of brooches Madeleine Albright wore when
she served as the first woman secretary of state and, before that, as US
ambassador to the United Nations. The rooms are full of mature women
and young girls who recognize Albright as a local daughter who made it
very big. The biographical note on the wall informs us that Albright lived
in this city from adolescence— when she arrived with her parents from
Czechoslovakia— until she graduated from high school.
Large color photographs hang above row after row of pins, like posters
for an American Dream movie. One shows Albright descending under blue
skies from a white jet, dressed in a dark coat and black Stetson hat. For
Coloradans, there’s no mistaking the local content in the choice of head
gear. A larger message is also clear: the new “sheriff” on the world stage in
1997 was a woman (Dobbs 1997).
Lines of display cases extend in all directions. One pin on a tuft of blue
velvet features a gold snake with a diamond in its mouth, wrapped around
a long branch. Albright chose it for her meetings with Iraqi leaders in the
era of Saddam Hussein. The brooch plays off a phrase by the dictator’s of-
ficial poet that described Albright (2009, 17) as “an unparalleled serpent.”
The pin signaled her view as to the identity of the real snake. Another
brooch symbolizes breaking the glass ceiling. It holds fused translu-
cent shards overlaid by a gold stripe to represent the entry of women to
decision- making roles.
For me as a political scientist, the exhibition raises important questions.
Did Albright’s presence and that of other women make a meaningful
difference to the conduct of international affairs? How might decisions
made by these leaders illuminate assumptions about women as gentle
viii
seekers of peace and consensus? To what extent have female decision-
makers acted in ways that advance women as a group?
Albright’s career recalls an older debate about the consequences of
more females on the international stage. In a controversial article, Francis
Fukuyama (1998) argues that the confident and aggressive behavior of
young male leaders in the developing world demands uncompromising
elites in Western countries. In his view, the clout of the United States
and other liberal democracies is in jeopardy if lots of women— whom he
portrays as largely pacifist and conflict avoidant—a ttain senior foreign
policy positions.
The track records of three prominent women cross my mind as I ex-
amine Albright’s collection. During the early 1980s, Margaret Thatcher
dispatched soldiers, ships, and aircraft to a remote location in the South
Atlantic. Other British leaders opposed sending a military task force to de-
fend the Falkland Islands (Campbell 2008, 132, 137; Steinberg 2008, 223).
Yet history tells us that Thatcher prevailed. When she served as India’s
prime minister, Indira Gandhi offered military support to secessionist
interests in East Pakistan (Steinberg 2008, 36). By the end of 1971, what
had been Pakistan split into two countries: Bangladesh and Pakistan. The
actions Gandhi took aided not just the fracturing of the neighboring state
but also India’s emergence as a major power. Although she was criticized
for failing to prepare her country for conflict, Golda Meir ordered a full-
scale mobilization of Israeli troops in 1973—d espite competing pressures
from American allies and her defense minister, Moshe Dayan (Steinberg
2008, 142). Israel’s ability to survive surprise attacks by Syria and Egypt in
the Yom Kippur War reinforced Meir’s reputation, dating back to her ser-
vice in the cabinet of David Ben- Gurion, who described Meir as “the best
man in the government” (Ranta 2015, 84).
Like these cases, “Read My Pins” suggests that Albright was ready to
defend national interests with vigor and decisiveness—i ncluding the use
of military force. Yet unlike Thatcher, who questioned what the women’s
movement had ever done for her (see Sanzone 1981, 44), the display in
Denver shows that Albright identified closely with pro- equality efforts.
I return to Toronto, where a student frames his seminar presenta-
tion around a tongue- in- cheek essay titled “Is America Ready for a Male
Secretary of State?” John Norris’s (2012) subtitle is at least as memo-
rable: “Running Foggy Bottom Is a Tough Job— Maybe Too Tough for a
Man.” The text portrays foreign policy leadership as requiring interper-
sonal talents usually associated with women, plus a level of dedication that
any “family- minded man” will find onerous. According to Norris (2012),
Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice, and Hillary Clinton devoted not
[ viii ] Preface
just “time, energy, and focus” to their work. All demonstrated unusual will-
ingness “to stand up to tyrants” and, Norris (2012) concludes, “[w]e just
hope a man would be up to the task.”
The timing was fortuitous. I realized that once Clinton completed
her term as secretary of state, scholars would be able to assess multiple
women in senior foreign policy jobs in Republican as well as Democratic
administrations, in a country with a powerful military and a history of
feminist activism. Women as Foreign Policy Leaders pursues the fascinating
questions that emerged on my journey to Denver.
Preface [ ix ]