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Isobel Coleman

Senior Fellow and Director of the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Initiative; Director of the Women and Foreign Policy Program

Expertise

Democratization, economic development, civil society, gender, Middle East

Programs

Women and Foreign Policy, Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Initiative, U.S. Foreign Policy Program

Featured Publications

Book

Paradise Beneath Her Feet

Author: Isobel Coleman

In Paradise Beneath Her Feet, Isobel Coleman shows how Muslim women and men are fighting back with progressive interpretations of Islam to support women's rights in a growing movement of Islamic feminism.

All Publications

Video Speaker: Isobel Coleman

The winner of the 2012 U.S. presidential election will have to address shifting priorities and maintain the relevancy and impact of U.S. foreign aid as government assistance is dwarfed by other forms of capital flows and new donor countries emerge, says CFR's Isobel Coleman.

See more in Foreign Aid, U.S. Election 2012

Podcast

The World Next Week: April 5, 2012

A preview of world events in the coming week from CFR.org: Iran and the P5+1 resume nuclear talks; the Summit of the Americas convenes in Colombia; the trial of foreign NGO activists resumes in Cairo; and World Health Day is marked.

Article

Giving Birth to Progress

Authors: Isobel Coleman and Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
Ms. Magazine

Isobel Coleman and Gayle Tzemach Lemmon argue that U.S. investments in midwifery programs in Afghanistan promote sustainable development in Afghanistan and allow the United States to keep its promise to bring a responsible end of the war.

Other Report

Maternal Health in Afghanistan

Authors: Isobel Coleman and Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Investment in maternal health in Afghanistan provides a cost-effective way to promote strategic U.S. foreign policy objectives including reducing maternal and child mortality, improving public health, empowering women, and fostering economic stability, and therefore, as part of a responsible drawdown in Afghanistan the U.S. government continue its commitments to training midwives and improving other maternal health programs to expand the advances made in women’s health since 2001.

See more in Afghanistan, Health, Women

Video

9/11 Perspectives: Echoes in Arab World

Speaker: Isobel Coleman

This video is part of a special Council on Foreign Relations series that explores how 9/11 changed international relations and U.S. foreign policy. In this video, Isobel Coleman, Senior Fellow and Director of CFR's Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Initiative, discusses how the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2011 influenced a debate over social and economic challenges and opportunities in the Middle East.

See more in United States, 9/11, Terrorist Attacks