We've moved!

(Flickr/H@ne)

We are delighted to announce our move to Foreign Policy Association's Web site. Women and Foreign Policy (yes, a slight name change) will continue to explore the same issues, with a special focus on the role of women in political life and, for the lack of a better phrase, women's issues. Keep reading, keep commenting and thanks!

The Great Schlep and jolly 5769!

I am not a big fan of Sarah Silverman, who I find more crass than funny. It took a lot to sit through the whole of Jesus is Magic. I did enjoy the Silverman v. Jimmy Kimmel sing-off featuring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Now, comes another tiny step toward Silverman’s long-shot redemption. The Great Schlep campaign wants Jewish grandchildren to visit their grandparents in the sunshine state (“a little man named Al Gore got f****d by Florida”) and get them to vote for Barack Obama (“our last chance for ending this reputation as the assholes of the universe.”) The site provides talking points on the whole black thing, Israel and other foreign policy issues. Unfortunately, I couldn’t open the PDF. Perhaps Rosh Hashanah traffic.

Anyways, here’s Silverman making her pitch and happy 5769!



Tip of the hat to Mindy Gold over at Moment Magazine’s blog.

The funny files

(Bloggerknight/Flickr)


A notable addition to the illustrious line of light bulb jokes came to me via Shilpa via Andrew Sullivan via, well, who knows? Here goes it:

Q. How many neocons does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A. Neocons don't bother with light bulbs. They declare a War on Darkness and set the house on fire.

Chavez's balancing act

(Presidente Chávez en la graduación de la Misión Che Guevara Cargado originalmente por ¡Que comunismo!)

In his post- Cold War classic The Grand Chessboard Zbigniew Brzezinski argued that the maintenance of the United States exceptional position as the world's only superpower demanded the deployment of aggressive geopolitical strategy. Throughout his book Brzezinski adviced policy makers on keeping their eyes on the prize, the Eurasian continent:

A mere glance at the map also suggests that control over Eurasia would almost automatically entail Africa's subordination, rendering the Western Hemisphere and Oceania geopolitically peripheral.(Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard, Basic Books: 1989, p.31)

Enter Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez ready to crash Brzezinski's carefully crafted model. Backed by Venezuela's oil wealth and by elections and referenda which have legitimized his presidency, Chavez has pursued a foreign policy agenda counter to the Bush administration's objectives.

Rejecting his nation's peripheral status with his actions and declarations, Chavez has made a name for himself in American mainstream media and in the midst of the presidential campaign coverage he is consistently mentioned as one of those difficult world leaders the next U.S. administration will have to deal with.

Lately Chavez has made international headlines by rekindling his friendship with Russia - of recent Georgia invasion fame- hosting two strategic Russian bombers in Venezuela and preparing to conduct a joint naval exercise in Caribbean waters. The intrepid Venezuelan is also planning a state visit to Moscow next Friday.

Coming from a Western Hemisphere country where foreign policy options have been permanently constrained to different versions of bandwagoning I cannot help but to marvel at Chavez's sheer determination to participate in the often off limits game of balance of power. Thucydides would be proud at his awkward but persistent Venezuelan student.

A positive externality

(Sarah Palin spread in my local newspaper, El Norte, September 21st, 2008)

In economics a positive externality occurs when an individual or a firm making a decision does not receive in full the benefit of that decision. The concept can be easily applied to what I consider to be an unintended effect of the current presidential campaigns in the United States: Hillary Clinton’s bid to become the Democratic nominee and Sarah Palin’s candidacy have done no small favor to the struggle of women politicians across the border.

In Mexico those women who have managed to achieve national recognition have not followed through by actually becoming members of the tight group of key decision makers. Neither Patricia Mercado, nor Cecilia Soto or Rosario Ibarra received each more than 5% of the vote when they contended for the Mexican presidency. It is safe to state that women politicians in Mexico have yet to build a generally credible counter hegemony, to use Adam Przeworski’s term, which would allow for the effective dismantling of the current male monopoly of national politics.

Yet, both Clinton and Palin have been the object of widespread attention by the Mexican media and the coverage is having the inadvertent effect of reassuring the general public on the idea of women occupying the highest positions of power. Moreover, the healthy ongoing debate in the United States about what constitutes a double standard in the vetting of a female candidate will prove to be of immense value for those Mexican women attempting to break their own political glass ceiling.

(Note to Nonna: no more Palin entries for a week I promise. Don't want to be held responsible for inducing assorted nightmares!)

Sex and the City author not joining the Sarah Palin bashing fest

(satc00119Cargado originalmente por Howie_Berlin)

In an interview with The Huffington Post's Lesley M.M. Blume, Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell had this to say on the topic of women in politics:

I was disturbed by what I read about Hillary before she lost the nomination.There were editorials about, 'yes, we want a woman, but she has to be the right woman.' The standards that we are trying to impose on someone who's just a person are enormous. I think we have to let go of the idea that we have to have a woman who's perfect to every woman. She just has to be good at what she does. When we talk about male politicians, we don't hold them to mystical standards of perfection.

I certainly do not agree with Sarah Palin's politics, but at the same time, as an American citizen, she is entitled to her beliefs, just as all women are entitled to their beliefs. We don't all have to agree. One of the things that's interesting about these campaigns is that - guess what - women are as different from each other as men. We allow for all different kinds of male types. We need to allow for all different kinds of female types as well.

The revered National Organization for Women begs to differ from Bushnell. In a statement released by NOW's chair Kim Gandy, the organization not only declines to support Palin but also fails to give credit to any of her credentials or life experience as factors that would in any way promote the advancement of women. In doing so, NOW chooses wording reminiscent of some of the feminist(?) attacks on the Hillary Clinton candidacy: Palin has officially joined Clinton in the ranks of not-the right-women-to-be-supported group of female politicians. Cosmos anyone?

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"Nanny" diplomacy

(Seth Browarnik/startraksphoto.com)

In a flamboyant move by the Bush administration, Fran Drescher has been appointed as a U.S. public diplomacy envoy. Drescher is best known as the star of the sitcom “The Nanny,” where her loud, glitzy ways earned her many admirers but forced others to turn off their TV sets, claiming damaged ear drums.

It will take more than even the most capable nanny to clean up our foreign policy messes. Still, I have always been a fan of cultural exchanges, and I am convinced that the world would be a better place if more Americans spent some time abroad.

Drescher is a rape and cancer survivor. She founded the organization Cancer Schmancer and will spend her time as envoy focusing on women’s health issues, including early cancer detection. She is the first non-athlete to take up the post and as Agence France-Presse reports:

Her appointment is all the more interesting as President George W. Bush's administration has fought to reverse the landmark 1973 Roe vs. Wade law establishing a woman's legal right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.

Asked her views on abortion, Drescher said: "I think that government is out of place to legislate a woman's body.

"But I do think that the world has to become a more female-friendly place so that a woman can make the choice for pro-life on her own because she knows that she and her unborn will be well taken care of," Drescher said.

According ABC News, Drescher was originally offered the job by Karen Hughes, then undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, who once infamously lumped pro-choice advocates with terrorists.

Well, what can I say? Kudos to the Bush administration for appointing someone who disagrees with the president!

Good luck to Drescher on her world tour spreading women’s empowerment, love of apple pie land and a mean New York accent!