The Hillary Doctrine: Sex and American Foreign Policy

by Valerie Hudson, Patricia Leidl, Swanee Hunt (Foreword by)

Overview

Hillary Rodham Clinton was the first Secretary of State to declare the subjugation of women worldwide a serious threat to U.S. national security. Known as the Hillary Doctrine, her stance was the impetus behind the 2010 Quadrennial Diplomatic and Development Review of U.S. foreign policy, formally committing America to the proposition that the empowerment of women is a stabilizing force for domestic and international peace.

Blending history, fieldwork, theory, and policy analysis while incorporating perspectives from officials and activists on the front lines of implementation, this book is the first to thoroughly investigate the Hillary Doctrine in principle and practice. Does the insecurity of women make nations less secure? How has the doctrine changed the foreign policy of the United States and altered its relationship with other countries such as China and Saudi Arabia? With studies focusing on Guatemala, Afghanistan, and Yemen, this invaluable policy text closes the gap between rhetoric and reality, confronting head-on what the future of fighting such an entrenched enemy entails. The research reports directly on the work being done by U.S. government agencies, including the Office of Global Women's Issues, established by Clinton during her tenure at the State Department, and explores the complexity and pitfalls of attempting to improve the lives of women while safeguarding the national interest.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231164924
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	06/30/2015
Pages:	456
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Valerie M. Hudson is professor and holds the George H. W. Bush Chair at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. She is the author or editor of several books, including (with Andrea Den Boer) Bare Branches: The Security Implications of Asia's Surplus Male Population, which won the American Association of Publishers Award for the Best Book in Political Science and the Otis Dudley Duncan Award for Best Book in Social Demography. Hudson is one of the principal investigators of the WomanStats Project, which includes the largest compilation of data on the status of women in the world today. Her most recent book is Sex and World Peace, coauthored with Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill, Mary Caprioli, and Chad Emmett, listed by Gloria Steinem as one of the top three books on her "Reading Our Way to the Revolution" list.

Patricia Leidl is a Vancouver-based international communications adviser/writer. Leidl has spent close to two decades working with various United Nations agencies and more recently advising USAID-funded projects in Africa, Afghanistan and Yemen. She is the former head of the Advocacy and Communications with the Geneva-based HIV/AIDS Department of the World Health Organization and was senior editor/media advisor with the New York-based United Nations Population Fund. She continues to consult with numerous other multilateral organizations and international NGOs.

Table of Contents

Foreword, by Ambassador Swanee Hunt
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part I: History and Evolution
1. How Sex Came to Matter in U.S. Foreign Policy
Part II: Theory and Cases
2. Should Sex Matter in U.S. Foreign Policy?
3. Guatemala: A Case Study
4. A Conspicuous Silence: U.S. Foreign Policy, Women, and Saudi Arabia
Part III: Policy and Implementation
5. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Implementing the Hillary Doctrine
6. Afghanistan: The Litmus Test for the Hillary Doctrine
7. The Future of the Hillary Doctrine: Realpolitik and Fempolitik
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

I recommend it.

The New York Times - Nicholas Kristof

How has the exclusion of the female half of this country damaged U.S. foreign policy? Let me count the ways — from ignoring a North Vietnamese peace initiative because it was headed by a woman to excluding the violence against females that is the normalizer of all violence. This country is fighting poisonous growths, yet leaving their roots intact. From now on, no debate about national or global policy can proceed without reading The Hillary Doctrine by Valerie Hudson and Patricia Leidl. It is the first book about high level efforts to create a foreign policy as if women mattered.

Gloria Steinem

In this remarkably readable book, Valerie Hudson and Patricia Leidl make clear the direct link to enhanced stability in countries where women actively participate in public life. The landscapes surveyed are startlingly broad, from developments in China, India, and Rwanda to in-depth case studies of Afghanistan, Guatemala, and Saudi Arabia. This volume is important for anyone who wants to think seriously about the shape and purpose of foreign policy. Secretary Clinton's declaration that women's subjugation threatens our national interests has been dismissed by many as mere idealism, yet it stems from a pragmatic approach and deep experience. Understanding what Hudson and Leidl reveal about the varying applications of the Hillary Doctrine strikes me as the start of wisdom.

from the foreword by Swanee Hunt

Highly relevant.

Financial Times - Gideon Rachman

Even-handed, deeply researched.... [The Hillary Doctrine] is a highly readable, fast moving history that covers a critical topic.

openDemocracy - Christina Asquith

The strongest case to date for considering women's rights a central issue of national security.... Highly recommended.

Choice

Thoughtful and nuanced.... I highly recommend [The Hillary Doctrine] to anybody interested in elevating women's voices in world affairs, as well as the practicalities of day-to-day U.S. foreign policymaking.

Newsweek - Micah Zenko

Rich in empirical research and theory, The Hillary Doctrine... is a must-read for anyoneinterested in understanding why and how women's security and the status of women around the world matter for U.S. foreign policy and national security.

Ethics and International Affairs

The Hillary Doctrine is a painstaking examination of Clinton's efforts to advance the status of women during her tenure as secretary of state.... [Hudson & Leidl] make the case that advancing the status of women will require giving the issue a permanent place on the U.S. foreign policy agenda, one that will long outlast Clinton.

Foreign Affairs - Suzanne Nossel

Hudson and Leidl's book is a must-read for scholars and students interested in the relationship between women's rights, human rights, and national security. And if we take the authors' premise seriously that women's rights are fundamental to human rights, then this book should be a must-read for any scholar or student interested in foreign policy.

H-Diplo - Shawn J. Parry-Giles

Nuanced, sober, and meticulous.... Highly recommended.

Midwest Book Review

A comprehensive overview of how women's rights have become better accepted as a part of US foreign policy.... As the first book-length study of the Hillary Doctrine this is a valuable and energetic start.

Prospect - Jessica Abrahams

[The Hillary Doctrine] is valuable pre-election reading for Americans, and illuminating for the rest of us as well.

The Vancouver Sun - Tom Sandborn

The Hillary Doctrine may not make you comfortable, but it will change the way you think about national and international security. Through a combination of case studies, interviews and meticulous research including perhaps the most exhaustive compilation of data ever assembled on the subject, Hudson and Leidl make the case that the equality of women is not simply an issue of fairness. It is fundamental to peace and prosperity globally. The authors are never tendentious or polemical. This superbly written narrative is understated if anything. The carefully assembled facts and the often searing voices of women themselves tell a compelling story. Hudson and Leidl follow a concise historical treatment of women's rights with illuminating case studies, setting the stage for focused policy recommendations. Having established that the security of women and the security of states are closely linked, the authors argue for an expansion of the Hillary Doctrine as U.S. national policy to an international Right to Protect Women. This book is required reading for policy makers and implementers as well as anyone concerned about where we are going as a nation and a world.

Ryan Crocker

Women define security differently than do men. For 50 years, grass-roots global feminism has urged policymakers to see women, to see that women are the first and worst affected by violence, poverty, wars, displacement, and other catastrophes—yet the least and last to be consulted about solutions. Yet consciousness is finally trickling up, and the centrality of women to global security for all—set forth here with scholarly rigor by Hudson and Leidl—is a most welcome leap forward in legitimizing the crucial need for major policy re-visioning. Ignore this book at your peril.

Robin Morgan

05/15/2015
In 1996, at the Fourth World Conference on Women, Hillary Clinton identified herself as a champion of women's rights around the globe. Coauthors Hudson (George H.W. Bush Chair, the Bush Sch. of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M Univ.; coauthor, Sex & World Peace) and Leidl (journalism, advertising & public relations, Michigan State Univ.) have here explored what they name the "Hillary Doctrine"—that ensuring equality for women makes nations stable and therefore advances the security of the United States. The doctrine has appeal for both liberals and conservatives, who have used the treatment of women as partial justification for U.S. intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan. Women face horrific violence worldwide, from the murder of infant girls to rape as a tool of war, and "Regime change" brings with it intensified militarism and hypermasculinity, which make the situation of women more precarious. Discussing various case studies, Hudson and Leidl conclude that ameliorating the oppression of women helps to stabilize societies, but in practice these changes are extremely difficult to achieve. Clinton herself as secretary of state (2009–13) had to ignore women's welfare as a cost of realpolitik both at home and abroad. Assessment of the Hillary Doctrine over the long-term will have to wait. VERDICT A solid introduction for the interested layperson.—Cynthia Harrison, George Washington Univ., Washington, DC

Library Journal

★ 2015-03-03
A compelling argument for women's rights. At a TEDWomen conference in 2010, Hillary Clinton, at the time secretary of state, asserted a connection between women's equality and international peace and stability. "Give women equal rights and entire nations are more stable and secure," she said. "Deny women equal rights and the instability of nations is almost certain." Hudson (Bush School of Government and Public Service/Texas A&M Univ.; Foreign Policy Analysis: Classic and Contemporary Theory, 2006, etc.) and Leidl (Journalism, Advertising and Public Relations/Michigan State Univ.) investigate what is known as the Hillary Doctrine, bringing to bear scholarly research, fieldwork, case studies, and interviews. They argue persuasively that in societies that permit and encourage violence against women, men develop "a willingness to harm, kill, and enslave others." When male bonding intensifies as competing groups vie for power, men see women's rights and freedoms as threats to their own legitimacy. The authors look at subjugation of women in Guatemala, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, examples of particularly abusive societies and also of "violent instability." As one Saudi women's rights activist said, her country is "the world's largest prison for women." As much as they endorse the Hillary Doctrine, the authors see problems in instituting change: establishing a legal and regulatory framework, making gender central to federal programs, and "the actual implementation of initiatives in-country." They offer myriad, dismal examples of sexism among contractors and USAID workers; exclusion of women from conferences, planning, and positions of power; and a lack of accountability for programs that are enacted. The authors criticize the Obama administration for its failure to include women in Sudan-South Sudan negotiations and for allowing women to be marginalized during peace talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Leadership on women's issues, they argue, must come from a deeply committed White House. A sound study that carries an urgent message.

Kirkus Reviews

Hudson and Leidl's book is a must-read for scholars and students interested in the relationship between women's rights, human rights, and national security. And if we take the authors' premise seriously that women's rights are fundamental to human rights, then this book should be a must-read for any scholar or student interested in foreign policy.

Shawn J. Parry-Giles