Feminist analysis reveals some of the chief causes and costs of militarizing U.S. foreign policies.
U.S. military policies today marginalize women and entrench the masculinization of political life at home and abroad. Employing these criteria, U.S. foreign policy today is militarized. Notable strides have been made in domestic policy arenas, even if there is still a long way to go before such intelligent questioning produces equally smart policy outcomes. In the 1970s and 1980s, women activists and feminist analysis did help drive popular protests against U.S. wars in Southeast Asia and Central America. Yet, generally, U.S. foreign policy has been tightly controlled by the president and Congress, limiting a genuinely public debate.