Women Leaders in Diplomacy across the Pacific

Abstract

Between 1997 and 2013, women occupied the post of U.S. Secretary of State almost continuously, the sole interruption to female incumbency being the first African-American male to serve in that capacity. Between 2001 and 2004, coinciding with serious reflection and reorientation of Japanese security policy, Tanaka Makiko and Kawaguchi Yoriko served as the first two women to hold the post of Japanese Foreign Minister (Kawaguchi was rumored for the post again in 2012). Though high-ranking women in Chinese foreign relations have been few, in the midst of simmering tensions over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands in late 2012, Ms. Hua Chunying became an official English spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Park Geunhye was elected President of South Korea in December 2012, becoming the first female head of state in modern East Asian history, and was engaged immediately by serious negotiations involving North Korea. The first female ambassadors from the United States to South Korea and Japan, Kathleen Stephens and Caroline Kennedy, respectively, were appointed during the Obama Administration.