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Chantal de Jonge Oudraat, US Inst. of Peace

Prior to joining the United States Institute of Peace, Dr. de Jonge Oudraat served as co-director of the Managing Global Issues project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington D.C, and worked as a senior fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. The fields of her research were transatlantic relations and global security issues. Currently Dr. de Jonge Oudraat is also adjunct associate professor at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University and a Vice President of Women In International Security. Here she talks about her priorities for the US institute of Peace and importance of organisations like Women In International Security.

What are your priorities for the US Institute of Peace (USIP)?

The USIP is a unique and important institution. Although it was established and is funded by the US Congress, it is an independent, non-partisan organization. USIP’s mission is to prevent and resolve violent international conflicts and to promote post-conflict stability and development. It does this through a wide range of research, grant and fellowship, education and training, and on-the-ground peacebuilding programs.USIP’s research and publications have made tremendous contributions to our understanding of the causes of conflict and the paths to peace.

I assumed responsibility for USIP’s Jennings Randolph Fellowship Program in January 2008. USIP sponsors both a Senior Fellowship Program and a Peace Scholar Dissertation Program for pre-doctoral scholars. The Jennings Randolph Senior Fellowship program provides scholars, policy analysts, policymakers, and other experts with opportunities to spend time in residence at the Institute, reflecting and writing on pressing international peace and security challenges. Our pre-doctoral program provides dissertation support for some of the best young scholars in the field at critical junctures in their careers.

I have three main priorities as the Associate Vice President in charge of these programs.

1- I would like to see the Institute continue its important focus on basic research, attracting applications from the best scholars and experts in the international peace and security field. Our understanding of the causes of conflict and the best paths to peace is far from sufficient.

2- I would like to attract more international scholars to our Senior Fellowship program. This program allows international experts to interact on a daily basis with scholars, policy experts, and policymakers in Washington, DC. Now more than ever, it is vitally important for international experts to understand American perspectives on international peace and security issues, and for Americans, in turn, to fully appreciate international views. USIP is an independent, non-partisan organization, so Fellowship proposals are judged strictly on their academic merits.

3- I would like to expand our pre-doctoral program and explore ways to expand international participation in this program. Currently, it is limited to American and non-American students enrolled in doctoral programs at American universities.

Given your prior role as Vice President of Women In International Security (WIIS), which role do you envisage for women in the field of international security in the 21st century?

I would like to see – and I expect to see – more women play leadership roles in both the policy and academic worlds in the United States and around the world. WIIS has played a very influential role in advancing the role of women in the male-dominated national and international security fields in the United States. But even in the United States -- where the glass ceiling has been cracked but not yet shattered by two female Secretaries of State and one female presidential candidate – the number of women in senior positions in the academic and policy worlds remains well below that of their male colleagues.

The next step in this essential process is for WIIS to expand its international affiliates and enhance the role of women elsewhere in the world – where women often face even more formidable obstacles and even more deeply entrenched patterns of discrimination. WIIS now has affiliates in Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Greece, India, and the United Kingdom, and more are in the works. The creation and expansion of WIIS affiliates in Europe and around the world is strengthening a transnational network of women in international security affairs. WIIS will be an increasingly powerful network of change in the 21st century.

WIIS recently launched a project that will track the number of women in senior positions, and it will publish a report card starting in 2009. We have made great progress, but much remains to be done. WIIS is also completing a study of the role of women in UN peace operations. WIIS found that there is a disproportionately small number of women in leadership positions in these places, and that this can be traced both to systemic obstacles and self-imposed restrictions. The systemic obstacles include an opaque UN recruitment process, a lack of effective communication between the UN and civil society organizations, a bias toward well-known candidates within the UN system, and a bias against candidates with humanitarian and development backgrounds.

Military experience remains a key qualification for top UN peace operations jobs. Women are also frequently held to higher standards than men. At the same time, some women do not put themselves forward for senior positions and leadership roles. Some women decline to pursue or accept positions unless they are highly confident that they are exactly the right match for the job. This study demonstrates that organizations such as WIIS are still vitally important in promoting the role of women in the international security field.

What is the greatest challenge to transatlantic relations today?

Diverging priorities. Americans and Europeans share many fundamental interests when it comes to national security, economic interdependence, democracy and human rights, but Americans and Europeans have different and diverging policy priorities. The United States will be preoccupied with Iraq for many years to come. Europe will be preoccupied with Europe for decades to come. Americans and Europeans look at many international challenges – from China to Russia to Iran – through very different prisms, with different levels of intensity, and with different policy preferences.

These tensions are especially acute in Afghanistan, where the United States and its NATO allies are trying to work together to stabilize a very unstable part of the world. This joint effort is the most pressing issue on the trans-Atlantic security agenda, and it will require great care and attention when the new US president assumes office in 2009. The success or failure of the NATO effort in Afghanistan will have important and long-lasting effects on the broader trans-Atlantic relationship.