2009-12-05T23:11:17-05:00 Amb. Swanee Hunt http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/index.php?author=swanee-hunt Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Amb. Swanee Hunt Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2009:/theblog//3.183279 2009-04-05T13:45:26-04:00 2009-05-06T05:12:01-04:00

Amb. Swanee Hunt http://www.huffingtonpost.com/swanee-hunt/
People throughout the countryside will vote en masse in these parliamentary races, given that the assembly elects the president, and the president chooses the prime minister and other ministers. City folk turn-out will be less - "probably because people have more information, so they don't trust anyone," I'm told by Boris, our polished taxi driver.

Boris is from a Russian family who moved to Moldova in the 50s, he guesses. A crossroads between east and west (including the principality of Count Dracula's Transylvania!), over the centuries the country was invaded repeatedly, most recently moving in and out of Russian and Rumanian states. Annexed by the Soviet Union, it declared independence in 1991, but scars of forced "cultural re-education" are deep, and many link the reclaiming of Romanian language and alphabet with patriotic identity.

Although only 13% of the four million Moldovans are ethnic Russian, they tend to be the more active of the citizens - and the more prosperous. An erudite political analyst explained to me that if you go to fancy places, you'll hear Russian spoken. But listen in the open markets; they speak Moldovan. Those differences weigh heavily in an election where villagers, pensioners, and Russians together can elect the new government.

Working as I do with women leaders, I'm particularly interested that, as in neighboring Ukraine, the prime minister (of one year) is a woman. Zinaida Greceanii is a technocrat and refused to join the party of the president who appointed her. That was probably a smart move, given uncertainties of the political scene. With this election, four opposition parties are expected to meet the 6% threshold for representation in the parliament. The communists will almost certainly have the plurality, and the ironic question is whether the three largest opposition parties, which are personality-based, have enough ego-strength to compromise into a coalition.

To get some sense of life outside Chisinau, the capital, we went into the rolling countryside, where boys were driving horse-drawn carts of firewood, and women in bright scarves joined men in caps cultivating potatoes and tending grapes vines. The president's black Mercedes whizzed by, police car in front plus follow car. Vladimir Veronin, head of the party of communists is term-limited. He is also confusing. That's because his Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova is built on fault lines. He's the leader of true-believing old-timers, who face east toward Moscow. But he also speaks for young reformer modernists, who privately say they're embarrassed by the party's name and want to change it.

Veronin learned the price of crossing the Big Bear. When the Moldovan made statements about the importance of being close to Europe, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a boycott of Moldovan wines, a precious export of this cash-strapped country. Even though Veronin has crawled back into the fold, the party is so far removed from the ideology of the bad old days that at least one Western diplomat here has forbidden his embassy employees to call party members "communists." He says the word points to power, not economic theory. In fact, sleazy power.

According to several sources, if a policeman stops you, you pay him half and leave without a ticket. Police, to inspectors, to politicos. The only clean leading candidate in this election, I'm told by an international official, is the 30-year-old mayor of Chisinau. More likely it will be the communists who create a coalition by buying members of parliament elected on the opposition tickets.

The president's son is particularly disliked. He is young and greedy, using masked thugs to physically threaten business owners not inclined to sell to him. "It's not really business when behind, you have a father who is the president," say the taxi driver. "People aren't blind. They can see that if the son wants to buy your supermarket, tax police come every week until you give in. It's not a life. And it's not democracy."

As he was finishing, a policeman pulled us over and asked to see his papers. "Why did he stop you?" I asked.

"Because he's bored."

At least he has a job to be bored with. With sky-high unemployment, many Moldovans are supported by the 25% of the population working abroad. But the government isn't doing enough. "You can't just wag your finger and expect money to come in," Boris continued. "They don't invest in agriculture even though our soil is so rich, it's like gold. And many office buildings are empty." He resumed pointing out the sights: The former KGB, next to the Orthodox church. Opposite, the Parliament. White House. opera house.

Last night I was at the National Philharmonic, watching my husband, Charles Ansbacher, conduct the Moldovan Symphony. The players are well-trained. The music was beautiful. The crowd appreciative.

Fourteen years ago, the first time I stepped into that building, it was dilapidated. Since then, it's hard to see where a nickel has been spent on maintenance or repair. Musical scores are in tatters, the light board is run manually by a man in his seventies, the front of the stage overflows with cascading white plastic flowers, the sound system hums, and there were no printed programs.

Backstage, in front of wooden steps leading to the stage door, I stopped and took out my camera. A patch of tin was hammered over a rotten board. The patch would do, of course, but it sure wasn't pretty. That's how life seems right now in Moldova. A lot of beauty happening in the midst of ugliness. Let's hope elections this week will move the country a step toward political, economic, and social health.

]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2009:/theblog//3.175982 2009-03-17T16:13:26-04:00 2009-04-17T05:12:01-04:00

Amb. Swanee Hunt http://www.huffingtonpost.com/swanee-hunt/
Thinking back -- in August, I stood on the floor of the Democratic National Convention in Denver listening to pundits as they debated whether women would support Barack Obama. They did--56% of them, and a critical 79% of unmarried women. So it was fitting that his first act as president was to reinforce the right of equal pay for equal work, a move that had been squelched by the Bush team. And now he's come forth with a bold, visionary structural statement showing his commitment to the vital importance of women as agents for the change we seek.

On March 6, President Obama announced his intent to nominate Melanne Verveer as the first ever Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues. She'll report directly to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The office and the officeholder couldn't be more appropriate. I've known Melanne since December 1992, when she headed the Washington Transition Office of the soon-to-be First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. In a crushingly intense time, she encouraged my analysis of how the foreign policy sector could benefit from the advancement of women. Partly as a result, as US Ambassador to Austria in July 1997 I gathered 320 women leaders from East and West Europe and the US for a conference we dubbed Vital Voices: Women in Democracy. The First Lady gave the keynote, and Melanne Verveer, her chief of staff, was right in the middle of the mix. When I left my post to found the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, the Clinton White House and State Department adopted Vital Voices as an ongoing initiative. At the end of that administration, it was spun out as a new NGO, the Vital Voices Global Partnership. Verveer guided the organization into a robust international nonprofit investing in emerging women leaders. Honorary co-chairs of the organization were Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Senator Hillary Clinton.

So now the team will continue as Ambassador Verveer takes her place alongside her Secretary of State. Together, they will protect women victims of abuse and hardship and work upstream of those problems by supporting the advancement of women policy makers. Worldwide, women are poised to transform their countries. Supporting them is a perfect example of what Secretary of State Clinton calls "smart power."

But that's not all the good news: On March 11, President Obama signed an executive order creating the White House Council on Women and Girls, headed by one of his most trusted senior advisors, Valerie Jarrett, "to ensure that American women and girls are treated fairly in all matters of public policy." Consisting of Cabinet secretaries and other high-level officials, the Council will coordinate, examine, and prod, to make sure that the challenges facing women receive the attention they deserve. After the announcement, I enjoyed hearing an interview with Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women. Asked if she was disappointed that there would be no Cabinet-level Secretary for Women's Affairs, she said something to the effect "We asked for a Cabinet position, and instead we got the Cabinet!"

I can attest, after working with women leaders in 60 nations, that these developments in our government don't stand in isolation. Even though the World Bank insists that women pull their communities out of poverty and stabilize them after conflict, few countries understand that promoting women's well-being is not only humane but also a terrifically effective public policy, and hence, patriotic. I've waited a long time to be able to say that my country is one of these enlightened nations.

Every public policy needs a human face - like Wazhma Frogh. The Afghanistan country director for an NGO called Global Rights, she is one of seven extraordinary women First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary Clinton recognized last week with the International Women of Courage award. They lauded her "courageous efforts to combat sexual and domestic violence, and child and marital rape throughout Afghanistan, despite facing dangerous conditions."

I first met Wazhma a year ago, as we worked on recommendations to reform the security sector - particularly army and police - in her country. As she described her strict army officer father who forbade her going to school, and women crouching by the door while the men ate their meals, I realized that beneath her warm smile was a spirit fueled by a powerful instinct for justice. "Security isn't only soldiers and tanks and fighting on the streets," she said, with intensity. "It's human security. More than fighting terrorism, it's fighting poverty." As we send 17,000 more troops into that country, we'd best be sure we're finding 17,000 women leaders like Wazhma to support. Then we'll stabilize the country.

During last week's ceremony, Secretary Clinton remarked that "our country has a lot to live up to." With the announcements of an Ambassador-at-Large for Women's Global Affairs, and the White House Council on Women and Girls, we've raised our sights.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2009:/theblog//3.173434 2009-03-10T09:42:13-04:00 2009-04-10T05:12:02-04:00

Amb. Swanee Hunt http://www.huffingtonpost.com/swanee-hunt/
Some 800 guests assembled in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia on the coast of West Africa, for the International Colloquium on Women's Empowerment, Leadership Development, International Peace and Security. Most of the leaders present hailed from Africa, although a sizable number were Europeans and Americans. Among the colorful sea of head-dressed women were a handful of brave men.

Our car pulled up to a soccer stadium guarded by an all-female Indian battalion in snazzy blue uniforms. Inside, the crowd was seated in the middle of the field, theater-style, under a roof of green reeds laid across long bamboo stalks. With a sweet breeze, the air was remarkably cool; never mind that life outside the stadium was blighted with ruin from decades of war: young men with legs amputated at mid-thigh, burned-out buildings, cartoon posters warning girls not to be seduced by teachers promising grades for sex.

You exclude women, you fail. You empower women, you empower a nation. Women never forget that life is our most precious asset.

"This peace is so fragile," an aid worker whispered to me on the sidelines. "Illiteracy and unemployment at 80 percent or higher.... Meanwhile, we've thrown away tens of millions of dollars to train people badly for jobs that don't exist. Frankly, everything good here revolves around one person. One person only."

That one person is President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, former Liberian finance minister, World Bank official, and UN expert. This is the stadium where her opponent in the 2005 presidential contest, George Weah, must have kicked his way to soccer stardom -- without a high-school diploma.

It was crystal clear that the international guests had made the long trip to Liberia to stand with President Johnson-Sirleaf, the first woman to be elected head of state on the African continent. They know that "Ma Ellen" needs all the external support she can muster. Three years into her six-year term, donors' failure to deliver has meant that she hasn't been able to make good on her campaign promise to supply electricity to homes throughout the capital. That lapse means not only deprivation; these are the kind of disappointments that breed a coup.

Kagame's Stellar Record

Like Beijing before the Olympics, Monrovia went all out to prepare itself for the colloquium. Women took their brooms into the streets; hotels made more improvements in the last two months than they had in two years. Still, most visitors had a story, though not necessarily a complaint. An Israeli politician spent the night in a room with no water or electricity. (The next day the embassy took her in.) The vice president of the European Commission told me that a family of mice paraded across her hotel room floor.

The person on the continent who can best identify with the challenges Johnson-Sirleaf faces flew in from Kigali, via Nairobi and Accra, to show his commitment. Rwanda's President Paul Kagame took the microphone to describe his regime's stellar record on empowering women in public life. No less than 56 percent of the lower house of parliament -- the first country in history to break the halfway mark. The same with the Supreme Court. And on and on.

Fifteen years after the genocide, Rwanda is relatively stable. Even so, Kagame's tall, broad-shouldered bodyguards were always standing by his chair, partially blocking the screen on which German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered messages of solidarity.

Between the parade of speakers, the air was filled by the sound of eight female drummers, plus one shaking a gourd rattling in a bright red net. It seemed like a novel, almost whimsical, touch, until I realized that the drummers and dancers throughout the weekend had been abducted as child soldiers and sex slaves -- some forced to rape their sisters and mothers, others to kill their parents.

'Women Make Men'

Dr. Aicha al-Ghadafi, the daughter of Libya's Muammar Qaddafi, stood tall, her blond hair covered casually with a sheer white scarf that fell over a long, perfectly fitted dress. She offered the saying, "Men make business and women make men." In other words, know your strength. Former Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik agreed: "It's not just China and India -- it's women who are the emerging power of the 21st century!"

I thought the most powerful speaker was Governor-General Michaelle Jean of Canada, representing Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. Haitian by birth, she spoke eloquently of what she has learned "from the incredibly courageous women of Liberia...Female leaders who see every ordeal as an opportunity...who measure their success by what they give, rather than what they take. You exclude women, you fail. You empower women, you empower a nation. Women never forget that life is our most precious asset."

All in all, this meeting -- the result of two years of planning by the minister of foreign affairs and minister of gender and development -- was a huge success for the Liberians. Perhaps if we had seen how the sausage was made, we wouldn't want to eat it. But what a triumph all the same for Liberians to be hosting the party, not begging for crumbs.

This piece was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Copyright (c) 2008. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2009:/theblog//3.172460 2009-03-06T09:33:27-05:00 2009-04-06T05:12:01-04:00

Amb. Swanee Hunt http://www.huffingtonpost.com/swanee-hunt/
As impressive as this meteoric rise to a stable and thriving country has been, equally noteworthy is how, as Czechs have risen upward, they've reached outward as well.

While in the Czech Republic, my able assistant Erin Loughney and I had the opportunity to spend a day meeting with Radio Free Europe, People in Need, and Berkat. The three NGOs differ in their size and sophistication, the macro or micro levels they target, and their modi operandi. But they share a common passion: Afghanistan.

At the offices of Radio Free Europe, founded in 1949 (in part by the CIA) and today reaching 25 million people, I met with the Afghanistan branch known as Radio Free Afghanistan, or Radio Liberty. RFA began with funding from the U.S. Congress in 2001; in the years since, they have become the most popular radio station in Afghanistan. In most parts of the country, they are the primary source not only of outside news, but also of education and inspiration. I explained to the nine men standing in the center of the room my keen interest in promoting the voices of Afghan women. On cue, four women came forward from their carrels and joined the group.

My next meeting was with People in Need. PIN was one of the first Czech NGOs formed after the fall of communism, to address social needs such as poverty and lack of housing. We met with three staff. One had lived and worked in Afghanistan three years, focusing on education, health, jobs, water, and sanitation in 14 districts and more than 500 communities. When we probed, we learned that People in Need doesn't focus on policy and other macro changes; rather, they're committed to direct help such as microloans and microenterprise. I asked about the role of women in his work. He let me know that he had not worked with women in Afghanistan, since the culture made it impossible for women to be involved in decisions outside their homes. I remarked that that's too bad, since the life expectancy of an Afghan woman is 44 -- and 36 years shorter than that of a Czech woman. One reason for that is that males tend to see males. But women leaders are more likely to notice, understand, and address the needs of all women. After my host insisted a third time that there were no women with whom he could work, I offered to send him names, pictures, email addresses, and cell phone numbers of 50 female lawyers, judges, entrepreneurs, accountants, and human rights workers.

The most unique NGO we met with, Berkat, is housed in a warm, cozy house in the middle of downtown Prague. There we sat around a table, enjoying a home-cooked meal of traditional food, prepared by an Afghan member of Berkat. Through a twist of fact, Berkat came to help children receive corneal transplants. The story's this: A Czech woman saw an article about Afghan children starving. There was a particular picture of a little boy named Adzamal, who was blind. Going only on the name and the photo, this woman decided to find him and help him - with $20. She contacted the couple running Berkat. Using fliers with the photo and his name, after months, they tracked down the boy. Back in the Czech Republic, a young doctor agreed to come during his vacation to do the operation. As the cornea was being prepared for transplant, a concerned government official asked the religious affiliation of the dead donor. Eventually, the infidel cornea arrived. The boy's operation was not successful, but his case inspired others. Berkat has delivered more than 100 corneas - sometimes carried in their laps. To help with expenses, elderly Czech women are making and selling dolls.

These three meetings were sobering and uplifting. Jaromir Å tÄtina, co-founder of People in Need, beautifully described what seems to be a general Czech attitude: "When the Czechs needed a helping hand from the world, we got one. Now that we're better off, it's our moral responsibility to help others."

So they are.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2009:/theblog//3.171198 2009-03-02T16:29:38-05:00 2009-04-02T05:12:01-04:00

Amb. Swanee Hunt http://www.huffingtonpost.com/swanee-hunt/ This post was coauthored by Sheila B. Lalwani, a graduate student at Harvard who is focusing on conflict and gender.

A few days ago, the United Nations released its latest report on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), the international commitment to prevent genocide, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. The report comes at a good time: President Obama is taking a strong stance against the violence in Darfur, and he's chosen as his ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, a sharp critic of the Bush administration's handling of those killings.

He's wise to have a woman at the helm. Why?

R2P is a mandate for global intervention when governments or state actors are either incapable or unwilling to protect their citizens. This is not interventionism by imperialists or greedy neighbors, but rather a key tool the international community can rely upon to prevent yet another bloody and violent century. To be expected, debates inside the UN are vociferous. And likewise true to form, absent from these wide-ranging discussions is a core constituency: women.

From a democratic perspective, this oversight is fundamental negligence. Women make up more than half of the world's population, but their voices are severely underrepresented in formal conversations and the resulting security policies. It's ludicrous that groups that are almost exclusively male are trying to secure societies that, at the community level, are run by women. The result is a policy concept of loose parts, but missing its backbone.

Women are in touch with what's really happening on the ground. They're often the eyes and ears of their communities, best suited to observing changes at the grassroots. For decades, they've led organizations addressing fundamental causes of violence: ethnic conflict, economic disparity, lack of education, and human suffering. Consider Liberia, where women organized across religious lines to stop a fourteen-year war (see "Pray the Devil Back to Hell") -- and where this weekend in Monrovia they're hosting 400 world leaders to celebrate their progress. Or India, where the Dalai Lama has established the Women In Security and Conflict Management Program, engaging women and youth who reach across the India/Pakistan border. The two of us have worked in dozens of conflict areas. Every one of them has multiple women's groups working across lines.

In addition to women's potential effectiveness in preventing or stopping war, it's important to have them in security design because conflict affects girls and women differently than males. Even where a culture of violence against women exists before conflict, it's aggravated by war. And seasoned observers know that the use of rape as a weapon is an early warning sign that a social order is completely breaking down. By including them in decision-making, their experiences of atrocities -- often sexual violence -- are put on the table; if women are shut out of the meetings and the mindset, attacks against them are likely to be overlooked.

Now an ironic twist: Having strong women leaders at the R2P table is critical because, with their lower social status they're less threatening to the other side. They can go places, collect testimony, and observe dynamics that men are cannot -- either because they're barred from the space, or because of their male frame of reference. This is the idea of "gender mainstreaming" -- consistently examining the impact of policies and practices on males versus females. For example, when international advisors go into a refugee camp, is the visiting group balanced? Do they accept meeting only with men leaders? Will food aid end up in the hands of a warlord or a midwife? And are the distribution sites in a place girls can go to without being raped?

Seeing the world through the experience of women provides a whole new dimension to "responsibility" and "protect." Understanding the gender norms and customs of a society is essential in providing "early warning." But the information and influence women provide is useful only if they are also among the formal actors. That's where R2P as a concept is failing.

Granted, the UN has been increasingly responsive to the impact of armed conflict on women and girls -- most recently through UN Security Council Resolution 1820. But the implementation of UNSCR 1325 -- declaring the importance of bringing gender to the center of all UN efforts pertaining to conflict prevention and resolution -- has been abysmal. And while Gareth Evans, president of the highly regarded think tank Crisis Group and the author of R2P, agrees (when prompted) with the importance of women in preventing mass atrocities, examples of women's essential role receive barely a mention in his writing.

What Evans, the UN, and others are missing is that women have proven to be courageous and creative participants in prevention, intervention and peace building. Their movements focusing on the shared social experiences of women create solidarity across lines of division and makes it harder to see the "enemy" as a dehumanized other. When conflict subsides, they're the first to pick up the pieces and rebuild not only their families but also the society. Thus they can play an extremely important role in demobilization, disarmament, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

Yes, women and girls are vulnerable in times of conflict and are used as vehicles for widespread oppression. But they're strong in the wisdom of their culture, and without their voices at the table, R2P will not succeed.

So it's tragic that R2P is not rising to the standard of inclusion mandated by the UN itself. Tragic, but understandable, since the traditional security paradigm was created by men for men. Women making it to the top of the male pyramid must always prove they're tough enough for the male war culture, although with Ambassador Rice and Secretary Clinton leading US foreign policy, we're seeing an increasingly inclusive diplomatic style. But in terms of the UN, the bad news is that most of those designing security policies don't grasp the necessity of bringing women's voices into the R2P debate. Still, the good news is that the responsibility to protect has huge hidden resources (i.e. half the population), through whom we can secure our world once and -- it must be -- for all.
]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2009:/theblog//3.165288 2009-02-09T14:01:17-05:00 2009-03-12T05:12:01-04:00

Amb. Swanee Hunt http://www.huffingtonpost.com/swanee-hunt/
Lots of metaphors are embedded in this scene, a five-minute walk from the historic Ukrainian port on the Black Sea. Preparing for this trip, I went online to find artistic offerings during our two-day stay. Nothing at all. But when we arrived, we discovered Carmen waiting for us. The opera performance was somewhat uneven, but the arias, costumes, and set were terrific.

As much as the performance, the enormous and ornate opera house is the icon of Odessa. Designed by the same architect as the venerable Vienna Opera, replete with gilded ornamentation, grand marble staircases, endless chandeliers, and the occasional satyr - it's a visual thrill. After 11 years of restoration, including shoring up the unstable foundation, it reopened in 2007. There were "financing problems," I'm informed. Yes, like $50 million of state funding that just disappeared. Seems Ukraine has a long way to go on the corruption scale; I'm told the problem starts at top political and business spheres. I'm appalled - until I remember about a thousand examples of special interest money influencing US policy makers.

Back on the wooden stage, to the right of the timpani, looking out on a sea of empty red velvet seats... I love these hours of rehearsal, watching my husband pull every bit of beauty from the cellos, cajole a solo out of the oboe, and refine the rumble of the kettle drums. I revel in these rehearsals. It's a shame that the concert audience sees only his back. Instead, they watch the dispassionate faces of the violinists, so intent on counting the rest measures so as not to miss their next entrance. Meanwhile, Charles is not only setting the tempo and giving entrances and cut-offs. His occasional potpourri of words - English, German, Italian, Russian - all seem incidental as his lips, eyebrows, hands, and posture give cues that the players pick up with their peripheral vision.

Hobart Earle, an American, has been the orchestra director for 16 years and is credited with its high standard. Charles says the orchestra is excellent, and Hobie is "really something of a hero." Given the political and economic crises, this country needs a lot of heroes right now. The deputy prime minister in Kiev told me that Odessa is the most important cultural center of this country of 48 million. The orchestra is at the center, performing almost every week, but there's also a Russian Theater and a Ukrainian Theater. (Everyone speaks Russian, although I'm told "60 percent of the population thinks in Ukrainian" and schooling is mostly in Ukrainian.)

Yegor Yegorov is a tall, 28-year old pianist with brown shaggy hair, which falls at times over his enormous brown eyes. He plays the Mozart 13th Concerto splendidly. He admits that he's nervous before a hometown crowd. "The audience is super intelligent, sophisticating, discriminating. They know music very well, so it's big challenge to play for them."

Yegor studied at the Stolyarskiy Academy, founded by a great professor of music before Soviet times. Some 200-300 students, age six to sixteen, take intensive classes in instruments, choir, and music theory on top of their regular subjects, before moving on to the conservatory.

Well, now it's evening, and time for the concert. The hall is full, buzzing with excited expectation. Little girls are dressed in adorable satin dresses. Four women in their seventies are sitting on the first two rows with flowers for Yegor and Charles, neither of whom they knew. The applause begins the strong, rhythmic pounding with pleasure, typical of Eastern European audience. The women's faces light up with exhilaration as they hand long-stem red roses up to the stage.

Whatever the challenges ahead, the loud, throbbing clap of the audience insists, Ukraine must make it.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2009:/theblog//3.164290 2009-02-05T11:58:08-05:00 2009-03-08T05:12:01-04:00

Amb. Swanee Hunt http://www.huffingtonpost.com/swanee-hunt/
A few hours later, I was in a conference room, meeting with 25 NGO and government leaders, watching clips of a made-for-television film promoting a sort of "Stay at Home" campaign. Migration has been part of Ukrainian culture, as we Americans know from the large ethnic enclaves in the US. But today, that search for a better life has turned into a disaster. Some 70 to 80 percent of the young people who leave return disillusioned. Of those who don't, thousands each year have their passports stolen, then are beaten and illegally trafficked for forced labor, including sex slavery.

Hearing these stories, I thought of prostituted women in short tight skirts and leather boots leaning into the windows of cars on the streets of Prague, Frankfurt, or New York. Stats say that a large portion were tricked into a sort of modern day slavery and are now controlled by pimps. They're fearful of the police. And without income, passports, and, more important, self-respect, going home seems as far off a dream as living abroad once was. The overall theme of the film is that young women don't need to look abroad for choices. Their country needs their aptitude and experience. Yes... it's that expertise issue again.

After that meeting, I taught a class at an academy set up to train government officials. When I showed the class a power point slide saying that five percent of Ukrainian parliamentary seats are held by women, one student raised her hand. "Women are more sensitive," she posited, "so they don't make good political leaders."

I've been painfully aware of the tendency of women to underestimate their talent, intelligence, and-yes-expertise. That's not only a loss, but even a danger. One lesson from the Russian incursion into nearby Georgia is that we need to pursue more non-military solutions; that's a particular strength of women as a group. In fact, I turn on BBC in my hotel room and see everyday how the US-Russian relationship is being tested. These are fragile times in the region, and Ukraine is a flash point within the former Soviet Union. True, the Orange Revolution of 2004 brought down a communist government, but a return to the past is always possible.

This country I'm visiting is already mired in political stalemate between the president and prime minister and has now plummeted into economic crisis. Everywhere I look I see construction stopped, with buildings half finished. An embassy official noted that traffic is lighter, probably because urban dwellers are moving back to their villages for food. In these hard times, one woman, Yulia Tymoshenko, stands apart as the strong and sturdy prime minister. Beneath her are 20 male ministers (out of 21). But a lone woman at the top isn't enough. Now more than ever, the country needs to draw confidence and sustenance from one hundred percent of its talent pool. Sad to think that the low self-esteem of women, endemic worldwide, could be leaving the breadbasket of the former Soviet empire half-full.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2009:/theblog//3.163545 2009-02-03T12:36:06-05:00 2009-03-06T05:12:02-05:00

Amb. Swanee Hunt http://www.huffingtonpost.com/swanee-hunt/
Since the mid-1990s, I've made dozens of trips to the newly independent states. (My husband, Charles Ansbacher, is often a guest symphony conductor, so we can combine our work.) I've observed the opportunities and challenges faced there by a population long under Soviet rule or influence. The trip I'm on these two weeks is no different. Charles and I flew from Boston to Vienna. He went on to Odessa to work with the orchestra, but I stopped off in Vienna for meetings with government officials.

In the past 24 hours, I've talked politics with dozens of people, from cab drivers to the president of Austria. Enthusiasm for Barack Obama is on everyone's lips. Expectations are high; his success or failure will stretch as wide as the ersatz Hapsburg Empire. President Heinz Fischer wondered aloud to me if we're looking to Obama as a Messiah. I said he has the opportunity for greatness given the crisis at hand -- greatness appears only against a background of crisis, after all. But I wonder how many Americans are aware of the wide reach of our election November 4th.

The change these days isn't just an adjustment to a lower standard of living. With these economic woes, human trafficking of women and children from Eastern Europe will likely increase, as bereft single mothers or futureless girls in Moldova or Ukraine answer ads for "exotic dancers" in Frankfurt, London, or Rome. Several of my conversations today were with Austrians (Egbert, et.al.) or regional officials (from the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe) working on stemming the tide. All agreed that it's hopeless to just try to staunch the flow of victims; ultimately, we have to address the demand for women's bodies as commodities.

There's an interesting argument among some Austrian NGOs that say legalizing prostitution has allowed women to get weekly medical exams. Problem is, only a few hundred women have registered, and there are thousands more in doorwells on the streets. Besides, it would be possible to legalize the selling of sex and criminalize the buying. That policy would encourage women to come out of the shadows for help, while shrinking the demand of an industry with three times the "normal" suicide rate among its workers. This is a chauvinistic power play, not a woman's right to choose....

One piece of good news: Austria has become one of the two-year revolving members of the UN Security Council. Under their former foreign minister, Ursula Plassik, the country took a lead on advancing women's leadership globally as a way of creating a more peaceful and prosperous world. President Fischer says he's committed to his country maintaining that forward-leaning position, and I imagine this small country will make a sizeable difference as a leader in this movement.

One last word about the president. He graciously spent an hour with me in his gilded office -- formerly Empress Maria Theresa's bedroom suite. When I presented him with Reese's peanut butter cups and a Harvard baseball cap (I teach at the Kennedy School), he began to reminisce about his time in the '70s as a student of Henry Kissinger. When HK let the students choose a public official to visit, they named "Bob Kennedy." (As informal as the Austrians try to be, they can't bring themselves to utter "Bobby.") When the 20 students went into Kennedy's office, Heinz looked around the room for chairs. There weren't enough, and he wondered what the attorney general would do. He turned to see their host sitting down on the floor, inviting all the students to join him.

How cool is that, I thought. No wonder (despite the past eight years) most of the world loves Americans. ]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2009:/theblog//3.157981 2009-01-14T17:29:23-05:00 2009-02-14T05:12:01-05:00

Amb. Swanee Hunt http://www.huffingtonpost.com/swanee-hunt/
It's no surprise that Senator Clinton's nomination by President-elect Obama was greeted by most women with elation. But having a strong showing of women in high places is distinct from addressing the concerns of women as a group. And so many are urging President-elect Obama to re-constitute the White House Office on Women, which was all but dismantled during the Bush administration. With so many decisions made outside of Cabinet meetings, it's important that a strong voice for women's interests be within the purview of the West Wing.

Women's advancement must be a priority for political and policy reasons. We were the deciding demographic during the presidential campaign. We propelled Hillary Clinton to victory in primary after primary; in the general election, we accounted for 56% of the voters who elected Barack Obama. Analysts say that women's role in America's electoral politics is likely to increase. We will play a major role in determining the outcome of the 2010 midterm and the 2012 presidential elections.

As for the policy side, women's general concern for entrepreneurship, family, health, education, and the environment enriches all areas of the President's policy agenda. Given his interest in broad coalitions to back his platform, it's important to note that women as a group have proven exceedingly able to compromise across party lines and forge long-term, sustainable solutions to social problems. And so the question of what structure will best address women's concerns is not a side issue, to be faced once our economy gets back on track or the Middle East achieves equilibrium.

In terms of foreign policy, a critical mass of women's leadership (usually about 30%), is a key to stabilizing war-torn countries and one of the most effective ways to counter the rise of extremism. Senator Barbara Boxer, during an interview on January 13th, discussed the plans of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations to form a US Commission on Women's Rights, to be led by the women members of the Committee. The Senate's attention is encouraging, but the Commission must not address women only as victims. Yes, women suffer disproportionately across most cultures, but they must be among the decision-makers determining the solutions to their problems.

Without a clear signal of the importance of their work from the President-elect, many American women leaders and organizations will be frustrated and possibly less engaged in this administration. A highly visible Office on Women will send the signal that our strengths are valued and our struggles acknowledged. A December 16th letter from a broad coalition of women's organizations called upon the President-elect to create a Cabinet-level Office on Women. Others are advocating for a commission devoted to increasing the percentage of women in political life. Whatever differences we have, we agree that the overarching office must be high enough to be integral to the formulation of domestic and foreign policy.

As the majority of the population, women are not just one more constituency among many. Underrepresented in the legislative branch (around 17%), and the same on the Supreme Court (11%), it's all the more important for women to be robustly represented in the executive branch. As a Ugandan friend of mine says about women's rightful role -- "Nothing about us without us." ]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2008:/theblog//3.150594 2008-12-12T13:20:20-05:00 2009-01-12T05:12:01-05:00

Amb. Swanee Hunt http://www.huffingtonpost.com/swanee-hunt/
Recent American foreign policy has overplayed military might at the expense of broader efforts to cultivate democracy. That's part of the mess we find ourselves in today. After eight years, we're financially strapped, and living in a far more dangerous world because we have focused almost all our resources on extinguishing crises, failing to build up stabilizing forces of prevention. As a result, we have become caught up in a deadly cycle of crisis, costly reaction, and instability, which causes more crisis, costly reaction, and instability.... That's what we know how to do: address the urgent while vital languishes.

Afghanistan is a case in point, where the Afghan Women's Network (leaders of schools, health clinics, and legal rights centers) and the Women's Parliamentary Network (27% of the assembly) stand up to extremists. Indeed, women's leadership may be the most effective way to counter the rise of religious extremism worldwide. These leaders need external support, yet they receive a pittance compared to military operations. For example, four years after the fall of the Taliban government, less than one percent of US foreign assistance was implemented by Afghan women's organizations, despite the fact that women's empowerment had been a primary justification for the US-led invasion of Afghanistan. And the higher judicial and executive positions in the Afghan government are almost exclusively male, ignoring the fresh perspectives and innovative ideas women bring to a leadership group.

The concern here is not "women's issues," or even "women's rights," but security. When women constitute about 30 percent of decision makers, their presence actually changes the behavior of men in policy-making and administration. In the short term, women's leadership reduces violence, starvation, hopelessness, and fear. And, since women are perceived as being less corrupt than men, their presence restores faith in the government.

But the long-term benefits of empowering women are equally important. The World Bank says that their advancement is the single most effective means of raising the standard of living of a community. We see the opposite in Somalia and Zimbabwe, dangerous failed states. Take a look at the news. To say the obvious, it's not the "Somalis" who are on a rampage. It's young Somali men between the ages of 16 and 30. The women who might be able to control them by sheer moral authority are nowhere to be seen.

So how do we achieve a stable society? Research says that across cultures, when women have formal power they tend to prioritize education, health, safety, and environmental programs over military spending. The problem is the phrase "when women have formal power," because women generally don't seek power. Although they abound as leaders of "civil society" (the humanitarian and human rights sphere, where they lack policy-setting authority), worldwide they're only 18 percent of parliamentarians and seven percent of government heads--far short of the critical mass needed for sustainable change. In fact, in war regions, they're usually shut out of teams negotiating peace accords and are less than ten percent of those contracted for post-conflict reconstruction work.

Despite the challenges of these numbers, benchmark language calling for women's empowerment has been adopted (if not implemented) by the UN, G-8, European Parliament, and World Bank. Several countries, including Canada, Norway, South Africa, and Sweden, train women in conflict regions to run for office, negotiate peace agreements, or lead post-conflict NGOs.

In contrast, the US government has no real mechanism to increase global security by increasing women's leadership. But if we adopted one robust strategy for the advancement of women, we would find enthusiastic partners eager to renew ties with the US around this theme. What a change, to be a country others admire and thus want to join. It would be a classic example of using "soft power"--policies and values that attract allies--to create global security. The reaction to the last election has made it clear: others are more than ready to like us again.

What does this mean on the ground? In September 2005, Hawa Nuristani was shot in the leg by armed men and left for dead as she campaigned for parliament in a remote village in Afghanistan. She was undaunted by the attack and a fatwa that anyone who voted for a woman was an infidel. I sat on her bed in Kabul, hearing her story, as family and neighbors gathered around. When I asked which was her husband, she said he was still in the mountains; as she was being carried out on a stretcher, she'd asked him to stay back and continue the campaign.

Nuristani was elected to parliament with 67 other women. In the assembly they're sitting next to warlords, but they support each other through their caucus. I've worked on women's global advancement for more than a decade, and I've met determined women like these in more than 40 conflicts. They're ready. And I believe our new security team is ready. A systemic, long-term strategy to stabilize fragile countries by spurring women's global leadership can be a defining element of the Obama administration. With vision, expertise, and champions, serious change and economic pay-off will be achieved within several years. Such an initiative will be consistent with President Obama's determination to create a foreign policy with less swagger and more sway. ]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2008:/theblog//3.116902 2008-08-04T20:49:42-04:00 2008-08-12T05:12:01-04:00

Amb. Swanee Hunt http://www.huffingtonpost.com/swanee-hunt/
I thought back a few weeks, watching my friend end her campaign. I was among millions of women who literally cried. No, not millions. Tens of millions. I've been working abroad a lot. Colombia to China, Lebanon to Liberia, Moldova to Mongolia, women have pulled me aside and insisted, "She must win -- for us."

Among the 18 million Americans who supported her presidential bid, none will be more important to a November win than women. So what's with us?

I've known Hillary since her husband's 1992 campaign. She obviously had the right stuff to be president, but few of us imagined she would take the plunge into politics. That year, our "Serious Issues, Serious Women, Serious Money" symposium in Denver became a template for women's engagement that has been replicated over the years, most recently by Hillary herself. She has brought women into the political process with an intensity not seen since the early 20th century, when women campaigned passionately for suffrage. For many, the Hillary Clinton candidacy called forth a similar passion.

The hurt many of us supporters now feel is understandable. What happened to our candidate is what countless women have experienced. We in the "sandwich generation" finally position ourselves for The Big Job after years of taking care of others (including the families of our men) only to have it given to someone else (the next generation's man).

That pain is real, and it's deep. But what is Hillary asking us to do in the face of this political, and personal, loss?

Focus on our broadest goal. Mine wasn't to get Hillary elected. In fact, hers wasn't to get herself elected. It was to create a more just nation. A more secure world. We both believed she was the best to deliver on that goal. She didn't win first prize, but meanwhile, she's moved women light years ahead. At the end of the primary season, polling indicated widespread acceptance of a woman as commander-in-chief. As Hillary noted in her magnificent concession address, how remarkable that previous barriers to women's presidential leadership became "unremarkable."

She may not be commander in chief, but she's asking her troops, in no uncertain terms, to get behind the Obama candidacy. It's time for serious conversations with ourselves, and with others, about What Really Matters Now. There were precious few differences between the two Democratic contenders; they lined up on women's rights and a host of other issues. We women who supported Hillary know that Barack Obama is brilliant, talented, and visionary, and that he carries our brief.

That's at a rational level. But at a gut level, we were long past ready for a new era of women's leadership. So we need a personal rigor to return to the issues, to recognize the clear choice that faces us in November. To stay home, or to vote for John McCain, is a betrayal of all we, and Hillary, have stood for these long months.

If we can't heal from this loss, how long will we be suffering from the damage of more Republican policies? So to my Hillary sisters, I say: campaigns are highly imperfect animals. Maybe they haven't found you, but the Obama supporters are doing a lot to reach across the divide. As of this writing, they've contributed well over half a million dollars to retire Hillary's debt, and I've been in one meeting after another in which we've been not only invited but warmly welcomed. Sure, sexism played a role in her loss, but that was not an Obama strategy. In fact, Hillary pointed out to our group (as Geraldine Ferraro said about her own vice presidential run) that there were also advantages to being a woman. The underlying question is, can we women, known for loyalty and steadfastness, switch our support without feeling as if we've betrayed our hero - and ourselves?

For many of us most closely drawn to Hillary, these conversations are exquisitely difficult. Her success would have been vindication of gender-based power struggles throughout our lives -- with fathers, bosses, brothers, colleagues. So with her loss we're wounded all over again.

Recrimination is a strong temptation, but it will be deadly, literally, to give into it. Instead, let's follow Hillary's lead. Forget the admonitions that we "move past," or "move on," or (oh, please) "just get over it." We're women, and we know how to deal with loss: Take it in and carry it forward inside of us. Then -- paradoxically -- we'll have the power to unify our party and win an election critical to our children's, our grandchildren's, and, yes, our own future.
]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2008:/theblog//3.114615 2008-07-23T17:44:07-04:00 2008-07-31T05:12:01-04:00

Amb. Swanee Hunt http://www.huffingtonpost.com/swanee-hunt/
The former president of Bosnia's rebel Serbs and a key architect of war-time atrocities, Karadzic started out life in a Montenegrin mountain village. He left to study in Sarajevo, graduating as a physician and psychiatrist. To explore his artistic side, he wrote poetry and children's books, often with themes of nature. But buried in the lines were themes of violence:

I wait in dawn's hiding place

This glorious opportunity

To suddenly forsake all

That this epoch has bestowed upon me

And I hurl a morning hand-grenade

Armed with the laughter

Of a lonely man

With a dark character.

Such poetry failed to win renown for the ambitious Karadzic. Psychiatry, too, disappointed. He turned to wild financial schemes; in the 1980s, he was convicted of embezzlement and fraud. Then politics and plotting, leading to 150,000 killed in a country the size of Maryland.

Years after the indictment, Bosnian Serb radio praised Karadzic as a man of "Christ-like virtues." No wonder. His deft deflection of blame eased the conscience of any bystanders who bought into his fantasies:

"Muslim Mullahs," not Serb soldiers, were behind the stories of mass rapes. The 1994 marketplace bombing that killed 68 Sarajevans was faked by sympathy-seeking Bosniaks (largely secular Muslims), who had raided a morgue for bodies to plant in the market. Even the 3½-year siege of Sarajevo was transformed from an atrocity perpetrated against the encircled city to a brave attempt to keep Bosniaks from attacking Serbs outside Sarajevo -- the psychiatrist's surreal spin.

It's tempting to linger on how a peasant-cum-poet turned into a president-cum-butcher. More germane to those of us who were working in Bosnia, and to those who care about injustice and suffering anywhere, is how it took 13 years to catch him.

The Dayton Accords that ended the fighting gave NATO the job of ensuring security, and we knew that peace could not take hold if war criminals remained in power. Refugees could not return home to communities run by perpetrators. And at a psychological level, survivors of massacres grieved endlessly, longing for closure much more than revenge. Yet journalists and human rights activists often tracked down the criminals years before international forces apprehended them.

One excuse was the military mandate. Often, its interpretation came down to individual commanders.

One military adviser told me, with verbal acrobatics, "Our mandate is to 'detain,' not 'arrest.'"

Another explained that his soldiers weren't trained to be police, and that trying to fill that role would end in disaster.

An aide described his boss's hands-off policy: "If he's in a café and the Serb commander, General Mladic, comes in the front door, Admiral Smith is going out the back. It's not NATO's job to pick up war criminals."

"I'm just a simple soldier," the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO told me. "We act when political leaders tell us what to do. I'm waiting for orders."

Building long-term stability in Bosnia, as in any conflict, required tough decisions and risks. Instead, decision makers in the international community seemed more concerned about avoiding attributable blunders. Dayton, after all, gave primary responsibility to the warring parties to turn in their compatriots. But for the most part, the Serbs, credited with 90 percent of the crimes, protected their own.

Now, Karadzic is in custody. What changed? For one, the failure to capture him and Ratko Mladic has been a fundamental obstacle to European Union membership for Serbia. When EU membership was a pipe dream, authorities did not move against the criminal in their midst. Only decency and justice were at stake. With this arrest, the new, Western-leaning Serbian government will have a smoother ride to that coveted club.

While we can hope that less calculated motivators were at work, this arrest brings an important opportunity. The region can reorient itself toward the future rather than the past. The Balkan people can now move forward, unburdened by one of the chief architects of mass murder.

There's farther to go, even in Bosnia. But the lessons reach far beyond, whether to Sudan, Iraq, Zimbabwe, or Colombia. Peace, healing, and prosperity go hand in hand with justice. ]]>