Law Students

Hillary Clinton?s ?Tough Love? Diplomatic Style

By Calliope

The December issue of Vogue features an up-close-and-personal of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as she completed a twelve-day trip through Africa earlier this year.  Much of the article focuses on how being a woman influences her style of diplomacy and communication.  One section in particular, about her motherly ?tough love? attitude (a theme that the author uses to describe her interactions throughout the article) struck me:

This was Clinton's message all over Africa: Stop complaining and get organized. It was a tough-love message delivered most forcefully (and successfully) in Kenya, in private with the leaders of the country; and she delivered it at the University of Nairobi, where the crowds outside were perhaps the biggest of the entire trip and where the students inside received the message with enthusiasm. In that auditorium, I was struck by Clinton's tone. It sounded like a speech that only a mother could give. Clinton has this innate ability to be almost but not quite hectoring, the sort of "Come on, get your act together, let's go!" that mothers deliver to children so effectively. Perhaps some countries are prepared to hear certain things only from a woman??

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Full post as published by Ms. JD on December 18, 2009 (boomark / email).