6 Things You Need To Read About Diversity in Foreign Policy
Weekly Article
March 5, 2015
At a recent New America conference, military officials and foreign policy experts discussed how to prepare for the future of war. The discussion focused less on the tactical nuances, and more on the long term structural trends that needed to be addressed. What did they say?
Panel after panel discussed that because future threats will be asymmetric—meaning they will become harder to predict—a greater diversity of perspective and opinions will be necessary to defend against them. But if our preparedness for the future of war relies solely on this diversity of opinion, the future is looking bleak. A recent Media Matters study says that only 22 percent of guests talking about foreign policy on cable news programs were women. And a quick look around the audience of roughly 200 at the conference turned up only a handful of people of color.
How can we fix that? Very smart people are trying. In the meantime, here are six articles you should read (or listen to) on diversity in foreign policy.
By David Rothkopf in Foreign Policy
The Davos conference in Switzerland is both absurd and a worthy venue for foreign policy experts, but it can’t achieve its goals as long as it is a primarily a guy thing.
Smart Women, Smart Power Podcast
By the Center for Strategic and International Studies
This weekly podcast features women from the corporate, government, and national security world discussing top international issues.
Diversity: Our National-Security Advantage
By Joe Funderburke in Foreign Policy
In a discussion forum of thought leaders on national-security topics, it was brought up why there are so few African Americans in the national security profession. Funderburke gives his insight as an African American working in the industry.
To Keep Up With 21st Century Threats, the Military Needs to Modernize Its Hiring
By Renee J. Squier in The Washington Post
The world is changing rapidly with technology at its forefront. And to keep up, we need new ways to recruit more diverse Americans into our military.
Binders Full of Women in Foreign Policy Experts
By Elmira Bayrasli and Lauren Bohn in The New York Times
A new study shows that in 2014, women made up just 22 percent of foreign policy guests on news programs, and men were three times more likely to be quoted on the front page of The New York Times. Foreign policy, and media representation in general, needs to be disrupted beyond the gender fault-line — ethnically, racially and geographically. That’s not just for diversity’s sake.
The Mysterious Absence of Women From Middle East Policy Debates
By Tamara Cofman Wittes and Marc Lynch in The Washington Post
Last year, six leading Washington think tanks presented more than 150 events that included not a single woman speaker. How is that possible?