Alex Stark
@AlexMStark
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Associate Political Scientist @RANDCorporation (currently on leave from RAND) she/her. RTs /= endorsements views mine.
Washington, DC
Joined June 2010
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Pinned Tweet
It’s publication day!
It’s hard to sum up what it feels like to have written a book, my gratitude to so many people who have supported me along the way, and the weight of responsibility I feel about writing about a conflict that affects so many people.
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My book has a cover!!!!
The Yemen Model looks at the U.S. approach to Yemen over the past two decades, and why it has failed.
It’s out in April, but you can pre-order it here or from your favorite bookstore:
@yalepress
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I argue in
@ForeignPolicy
that proxy wars have not accomplished U.S. strategic goals—in some cases, they've done the opposite. It’s time to focus on a new strategy in the Middle East centered on major investments in development and diplomacy.
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Well, this is as good a time as any to mention that I'm writing a book about U.S. policy in Yemen!
From the "Yemen model" of counter-terrorism to the ongoing civil war, Yemen is a fascinating lens for U.S. Middle East policy gone wrong-
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My main takeaway about academia is that most of us are traumatized by it, but some people use that experience to take others under their wing & help them, while others internalize it and then emotionally abuse junior people
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Political Science systematically devalues the work of women and POC and then acts confused when there aren't more of us in the senior ranks. (That's it, that's the tweet.)
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I wrote for
@ForeignPolicy
on why (and how) we should change our approach to proxy wars in the Middle East
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It's here! In "Peacemakers or Iron Ladies?" in
@SecStudies_Jrnl
,
@Madison_Schramm
& I argue women leaders are incentivized to overcome gender stereotypes by initiating conflict--but conflict initiation isn't essentialized behavior, but context-dependent
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Im thrilled that we're publishing this report from
@TheIRMS
today. If you want to study incels or understand the links between misogyny and political violence, this is a must-read:
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In
@ForeignAffairs
, I explain why airstrikes haven’t deterred the Houthis, and how to counter Houthi messaging to blunt the impact of their Red Sea attacks:
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Re:discussions of whether Saudi Arabia will turn to Russia or China as a weapons supplier, I'm always struck that this is not a new dynamic.
Here's King Faisal insisting in 1964 he will "seek help anywhere he can get it" if the U.S. refuses to back Saudi intervention in Yemen:
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Today is my last day at
@NewAmerica
!
I'm so grateful for my time here & for the support of
@SlaughterAM
&
@PolReformNA
. And the best boss ever,
@natsecHeather
At the risk of being annoying, I'm going to share some of my fave things Heather & I were able to do w/our partners:
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Pandemics don’t promote peace—and they can accelerate trends in political violence instead. Rachel Brown,
@natsecHeather
& me in
@ForeignAffairs
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The US has few good options to respond to Houthi attacks. But a diplomatic push for a sustainable peace in the war in Yemen while continuing efforts to deter Houthi attacks alongside international partners is the least bad of them.
Don’t Bomb the Houthis
Careful diplomacy can stop the attacks in the Red Sea.
www.foreignaffairs.com
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Sorry, what now?
🇭🇺🇺🇸
@PM_ViktorOrban
welcomed John Mearsheimer, renowned American realist in Budapest today.
At the meeting, they discussed the war in Ukraine and agreed that it is the most dangerous conflict in decades and therefore must come to an end as soon as possible.
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Lol my phd lasted longer than the confederacy.
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"If we say that a conflict is fundamentally a proxy war, we make the people on the ground into puppets...Analysts need to understand [external intervention], without minimizing or erasing local decision-making" 👏👏
@sahelblog
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Does this mean Russia is Iran’s proxy.
JUST IN: White House NSC coordinator John Kirby says Iranian military personnel were on the ground in Crimea assisting Russian pilots who bombarded Kyiv with Iranian drones on Monday.
"Iran is now directly engaged on the ground," Kirby says.
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Hi you can advocate for peace and justice in Yemen without echoing Houthi talking points, thank you for coming to my TED talk.
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I’m excited to be included in this awesome group of folks!
The Irregular Warfare Initiative takes great pride in announcing the selection of our 2023 Fellows.
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Dr. Masoud, it's really dispiriting for junior women scholars to see stuff like this.
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I have a piece in the
@NewAmerica
Weekly arguing that COVID19 can't be another 9/11, leading to a militarized response--instead, we need new conceptions of what security means
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Hi
@AnnCoulter
, if you’re going to retweet me w/ editorializing I don't endorse, you could at least elevate for your followers the wonderful work my colleagues at
@NewAmerica
are doing to promote a racially & ethnically diverse America (1/9)
If they looted Cato - which works to outsource U.S. jobs and import low-wage workers to replace African-Americans - I'd have to admit, they're doing something for black people.
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Apropos of nothing in particular, I can’t wait to dig in to this book. I feel safer knowing that
@ArianeTabatabai
is serving in government!
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Great piece in
@WarOnTheRocks
that highlights how security assistance can inadvertently erode state legitimacy in fragile regimes, laying the conditions for coups:
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Want to change
#natsec
policy? Enter our essay contest!
✅winners get a 💵 prize
✅winning essays get published
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This is hard-to-watch but incredible reporting on the humanitarian situation in
#Marib
. Thank you,
@IsobelYeung
.
The fighting in Marib is putting civilian populations at risk and exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in
#Yemen
.
There are ~2 million displaced people in Marib.
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It was such a pleasure to host
@BtGProjectDC
at
@NewAmerica
today to talk emerging tech and strategic stability!
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Pick up your own copy here (also available in audio and ebook formats!):
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Wonder what every girl sent home for wearing spaghetti straps thinks of the “personal choice” approach
“Wearing a mask is a personal choice, and there is no practical way to enforce a mandate to wear them,” the superintendent of a Georgia school district wrote in a letter after a widely circulated photo showed a packed hallway on the first day of classes
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I wrote in January: “It is hard to see how airstrikes would deter Houthi attacks … it will be much harder to effectively target and eradicate the Houthis’ small, cheap manned and unmanned boats [and UAVs].”
Don’t Bomb the Houthis
Careful diplomacy can stop the attacks in the Red Sea.
www.foreignaffairs.com
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My report on Congress' role in managing U.S. security partnerships is out today!
Whether you want to end 'endless wars' or make security cooperation more effective, this report has something for you. [1/4]
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Really looking forward to co-hosting this event next week with
@NatSecDiver
featuring Michèle Flournoy, Alonzo Fulgham,
@Jenkinsbd
,
@CamilleEsq
&
@SlaughterAM
-- check it out!
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"Any hopes the Saudis had of securing more precision guided missiles from the U.S. have been all but quashed, U.S. officials said."
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Today in
@monkeycageblog
, I explain what it means that the Biden administration is ending support for "offensive operations" in
#Yemen
-- and why a commitment to diplomacy is just as important
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How has the meaning of security for Americans changed over the past year, and has our national security discourse kept up? (Spoiler alert: it has not!)
@CandaceRondeaux
@natsecHeather
& my new report is out today:
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"In July, the Houthis threatened to attack the Saudis if they did not put an end to the financial sanctions, and the Saudis quickly caved. The pattern has repeated itself again and again in recent years."
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Thrilled to have the opportunity to write with
@SlaughterAM
about how the Biden administration can craft a diplomacy-first foreign policy in
@ProSyn
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Some reading recommendations on who the Houthis are and what they're up to in the Red Sea: 🧵
@BrandtMarieke
's book Tribes and Politics in Yemen: A History of the Houthi Conflict offers a deep anthropological dive into the Houthis' origins. A must-read.
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I wrote about the risks of selling F-35s to the UAE, including Israel's QME but also a regional arms race, sensitive defense technology, & end use issues (read: UAE has transferred US-manufactured weapons to AQ-linked fighters in Yemen) in
@just_security
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This makes for a fascinating case study in information operations:
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.
@natsecHeather
& me on why we can't afford diversity backsliding now (& why you should participate in our essay competition) in
@inkstickmedia
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A quick roundup of how Congress could weigh in on the US-Saudi relationship 🧵:
1. NOPEC: A bill to erode OPEC's power over oil prices that would strip OPEC members of sovereign immunity, meaning they could be sued for collusion.
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My boss is in the New York Times!!!!
@natsecHeather
on how covid should usher in a “new kind of internationalism, in which the high politics and geostrategy of the Cold War are replaced by practical, local-led cooperation.”
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“Washington’s inconsistent position on Libya — officially supporting the peace process even as the White House has signaled that President Trump favors Mr. Hifter — has played a major role in prolonging the chaos”
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Have ideas about how to operationalize restraint & end endless wars? Or maybe you think the whole idea of national security is silly and we should actually be talking about pandemics and climate change?
Enter our essay contest! Deadline is in less than a week:
Want to change
#natsec
policy? Enter our essay contest!
✅winners get a 💵 prize
✅winning essays get published
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Honestly there are very, very few people on the planet who have direct insight into what happens inside of Middle East monarchies, and the rest of us just have (more or less informed) speculation.
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Much of the recent coverage of US Yemen policy has been...unsatisfying. I just want to re-up the idea that diplomacy is messy and takes a long time -- and that doesn't mean it's not working.
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Register for
@NewAmerica
's virtual Future Security Forum Sept. 21-24, especially (but not only) if you'd like to hear me ramble about proxy wars in the Middle East!
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Anyway, here’s my parents’ dog, Dora, on her birthday posing with her presents:
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If you ever need your faith in academia and/or humanity renewed, I highly recommend hanging out with the
@BtGProjectDC
team!
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2 months after President Biden's announcement that US will end support for "offensive operations" in Yemen, it's still unclear what that means exactly:
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Excited to embarrass my boss,
@natsecHeather
, who is one of Washington’s most influential people. “Expertise that enables public service and good-faith debate and explains why idealists still come to Washington”? Sounds right to me!
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Congrats to the brilliant
@Madison_Schramm
for winning the Waltz Dissertation Award!!! I feel so lucky to be your occasional partner in crime.
So proud of my brilliant
@CMUIPS
and
@GUGovt
(former
@ND_ISC
) colleague
@Madison_Schramm
for winning the prestigious
@APSAtweets
Waltz Dissertation Award!
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I wrote for
@lawfareblog
that ending informal notifications to Congress On arms sales would be a mistake
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The only way I made it through my PhD was by finding the wonderful, generous, kind helpers, and now I do my best (imperfectly, no doubt) to pay their kindness forward
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Always knew we’d be a trend some day 💅
@Madison_Schramm
Trending in
#PoliticalScience
:
1) Gender & International Conflict (
@SecStudies_Jrnl
)
2) How Markets Shape Values & Political Preferences (
@AJPS_Editor
)
3) Impact of Trump’s Midterm Endorsements (
@LSQjournal
)
4) Party Government & Political Information
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An example of the Biden admin effectively using diplomacy to prevent crisis escalation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — US officials: Initial findings suggest missile that hit Poland was fired by Ukrainian forces at incoming Russian missile.
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I can’t wait to read this new book by my friend Dr.
@LaurenHaumesser
!! We have so much to learn about polarization, identity, and political violence from US history.
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There is unequivocally TONS of overt discrimination in academia. But there are also a thousand more covert, insidious forms of discrimination that straight, white cis*men get to pretend they don't see.
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The fighting in Marib is putting civilian populations at risk and exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in
#Yemen
.
There are ~2 million displaced people in Marib.
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Less than a month!!
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Over the past 2 decades, the Saleh regime and then the Saudi-led coalition tried to use military force to remove the Houthis.
Not only did it not work, but the war bolstered the Houthis’ domestic and regional legitimacy.
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On top of everything else wrong with this, I'm so sorry to my international grad student colleagues who already have to deal with so much stupid, needless crap.
NEWS: International students at colleges that remain fully online this fall will not be able to take classes and remain in the U.S. But students will be allowed to take a mix of online and in-person classes, according to new government guidance
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Data from
@EricaChenoweth
&
@djpressman
show that
#BLM
protests have been "overwhelmingly peaceful;" "When there was violence, very often police or counterprotesters were reportedly directing it at the protesters."
@monkeycageblog
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Obama ran on an anti-"dumb wars" platform.
How did his admin end up backing the Saudi-led coalition in
#Yemen
?
I wrote about how U.S. policy has never actually been about Yemen - & why this approach is bad for the U.S. too - for
@SanaaCenter
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I've been supportive of Congressional action in the past, but I have not heard a convincing explanation for why a WPR now would have any effect on the war in Yemen.
NEW: The U.S. can easily alter its relationship with Saudi Arabia by passing a Yemen War Powers Resolution
Read
@AnnelleSheline
&
@HassanElTayyab
in
@RStatecraft
.
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I preview my new report on Congress' role in managing U.S. security partnerships, and explain why it's so important, today in
@RStatecraft
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The Biden admin will move forward with the UAE F-35 sale that was rushed through Congress at the end of the Trump admin.
I wrote about issues with this sale flagged by Congress back in December in
@just_security
:
I broke the news last night that after announcing a review of Trump’s biggest arms deal—$23 billion for the UAE, including F35s & armed drones—Biden is advancing the sale.
On the campaign trail & since, he promised a foreign policy centering human rights.
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The administration still hasn't publicly explained precisely what ending U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition means.
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West Virginia: You can’t just create a new state for political reasons!
Also West Virginia:
Do you think DC should be its own state?
I joined many of my colleagues in the West Virginia Legislature to urge Congress to oppose DC statehood.
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This is so important! 👏
I'm sure I do this very imperfectly & often fall short, but when looking at U.S. policy towards MENA, we should all strive to center the voices and well-being of people in the region who have to live w/ the consequences of these policies.
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This, and also Gulf states want a lot more from a security partner in addition to arms sales — deterrence of opponents, forces & assets stationed in the region, & other kinds of security guarantees — that both Russia and China are unwilling and unable to provide.
Arguing "X will cause Y to turn toward Russia and China" is one of the laziest reflexes in Washington. Does anyone think Saudi Arabia is currently looking at Russia—Russia!—and thinking "gee, they look like a reliable choice of arms supplier"?
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I summarize some of the arguments from my
@ForeignPolicy
piece here (thanks to
@pwinitiative
!):
Should the U.S. end its proxy wars in the Middle East?
@AlexMStark
, Fellow
@NewAmerica
, spoke to Proxy Wars Initiative and argues it should.
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Join us tomorrow at noon for the official launch of the
@OutInNatSec
2020 LGBTQIA+ Leadership List 🏳️🌈
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@NewAmerica
@SlaughterAM
@PolReformNA
@natsecHeather
Our research consistently highlighted how diversity leads to better policy outcomes. For the first report I ever worked on at NA, we interviewed 2 dozen women in nuclear security to learn about their experiences (thanks
@plough_shares
!):
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I so enjoyed this opportunity to talk about proxy wars with smart people doing research on the cutting-edge of understanding these complex conflicts! Many thanks to
@peterbergencnn
, Melissa Salyk-Virk,
@Dsterms
for organizing.
Insightful discussion yesterday on proxy warfare in all its dimensions at the
#FutureSecurityForum
: learned so much from panelists
@CandaceRondeaux
,
@AlexMStark
Melissa Salyk-Virk & Tony Pfaff. Thanks to
@NewAmerica
@ASU
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-and offers valuable lessons for reimagining our approach to the region, including revising relationships w/ problematic security partners like KSA.
The advocacy movement around arms sales/war powers also offers exciting ideas for how we can democratize U.S. foreign policy.
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A coalition of progressive orgs is urging the Biden admin to permanently cancel 28 arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE:
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This👇 The announcement is a big step forward and I don't want to under-play its importance, but I do want to know how much work "offensive operations" is doing here
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🔖I'm super excited to talk about my new book (!!) with
@peterbergencnn
&
@NewAmerica
in a few weeks!
It's a virtual event, so you can attend from anywhere:
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I was on the Warcast
@WarOnTheRocks
!
Talking what’s happening after the truce formally expired in
#Yemen
and the US role in diplomacy:
Dr. Alexandra Stark joins the WarCast to discuss the state of the conflict in Yemen and what could be next.
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I wrote this in
@ForeignAffairs
before the U.S./UK strikes began, but it’s increasingly clear that strikes won’t deter Houthi Red Sea attacks.
They may be able to erode the Houthis’ ability to sustain attacks over time, but not a sure thing.
Don’t Bomb the Houthis
Careful diplomacy can stop the attacks in the Red Sea.
www.foreignaffairs.com
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Since this article cites something I wrote approvingly, I’ll just point out that this framing of the WPR is as harmful as it is empirically wrong:
Bernie Sanders withdrew a war powers resolution meant to end US support for the Saudi-led war effort in Yemen, after the Biden administration pushed Democrats to oppose it. Yet with the right grassroots pressure, a similar resolution could still succeed.
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Very excited to discuss what a feminist foreign policy could look like next week!
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"A foundational flaw in the U.S. national project is its citizens’ inability to unite around a common understanding of reality, notably in terms of structural racism and systemic injustice." -
@kelly_zvobgo
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