The Hillary Doctrine

Hillary Rodham Clinton is 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 made part of 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 is the first book 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 Mexico? With specific studies of Guatemala, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, 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. It 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.

Valerie M. Hudson is professor and 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 and coauthor of Sex and World Peace and Bare Branches: The Security Implications of Asia's Surplus Male Population, which won the American Association of Publishers Award for Best Book in Political Science and the Otis Dudley Duncan Award for Best Book in Social Demography. She was named one of Foreign Policy's Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2009.

Patricia Leidl is a Vancouver-based international communications advisor who splits her time between the Faculty of Journalism and the Department of Advertising and Public Relations at Michigan State University. Leidl has worked with various USAID-funded projects in Afghanistan and Yemen and as a communications/media advisor with the Geneva-based HIV/AIDS Department of the World Health Organization and as senior editor/media advisor with the New York-based United Nations Population Fund, in addition to consulting with numerous other multilateral organizations and international NGOs. She has served as editorial director of the Vancouver-based Human Security Report and has worked as an illustrator, graphic designer, and crime reporter.