Subjugation of women poses threat to U.S. national security, scholar says

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The subjugation of women around the globe poses a significant threat to U.S. national security, a Texas A&M University professor argues in her latest book.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton first articulated this position on behalf of the U.S. government, says Valerie Hudson, a professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service, and co-author of “The Hillary Doctrine: Sex and American Foreign Policy”

The book examines the implementation of the Hillary Doctrine during the four years that Clinton served as secretary of state under the Obama administration.

“Nationalism is strongly gendered,” Hudson says. “Men typically build a violent nationalism on a foundation of misogyny, and women’s rights become a battleground in resulting conflicts.”

Hudson, an expert on international security and foreign policy analysis, holds the George H.W. Bush Chair. In 2009, the magazine Foreign Policy named her one of the Top 100 Most Influential Global Thinkers, and the International Studies Association named her a Distinguished Scholar of Foreign Policy Analysis. Most recently, Hudson received a 2015 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship.