Advisory Boards: Not just for Presidents (Secretaries of State have them too)

I still aim for a Presidential Empowerment of Women Advisory Board. But with the appointment of Senator Clinton as Secretary of State, and presuming that she will be confirmed by the Senate, Senator Clinton will be uniquely able to create an International Women's Advisory Board (IWAB), modeled after the already existing International Security Advisory Board (ISAB). Currently, the ISAB is housed within the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation (ISN), which reports to the Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security.   A quick review of  the current State Department organizational chart  suggests a number of potential places for an International Women's Advisory Board.  Most ambitiously, a new Under Secretaryship could be created, an Under Secretary for Women's Affairs. If this were done there could any number of internationalist programs aimed at women's status around the world, with Assistant Secretaries charged which specific areas such as economic empowerment, diplomatic outreach to women, and so forth. Most narrowly, an IWAB could be created to report to one of the current Under Secretaries, such as the Under Secretary for Political Affairs, the Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs (these Under Secretaries currently report to the Deputy Secretary of State's Chief of Staff) or if more suitable to the Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs, who currently reports to the Executive Secretary to the Deputy of Secretary of State.

The point of suggesting an IWAB or even broader department within State is that this is another way the new Administration and Senator Clinton as part of it can capitalize on her idea of women's rights as human rights. Just as the struggle for human rights is inherently global and internationalist, so is the struggle for women's rights. In Senator Clinton we will have an  SoS already committed to these ideas.

Furthermore, while we still need a PEWAB (Presidential Empowerment of Woman Advisory Board), the State Department could be a model for how to put women's issues front and center in every executive department.

With Senator Clinton's appointment to head the Department, I - along with millions of other Clinton Democrats - and there are millions of us - will make it our business to get to know the State Department. Another bonus to Senator Clinton as SoS: she will make more Americans interested in and knowledgeable about the Department of State. Good for democracy, good for America's international and foreign policy.