A role of one's own:

...Without the big picture, the danger Bosnia poses for WORLD WATCH the Balkans as a whole or the signal it sends to others contemplating some version of "ethnic cleansing" may be ignored...

...But it could our problems stem in large part from this pline of the cold war, the old issues of the be that such problems as the breakdown breakdown in appreciation for what it Balkans have arisen again...

...bines an extraordinary range of publidetermination of the president to focus pri- Second, the big picture must then be re- cations with years of experience in the marily and consistently on domestic pol- lated to an in-depth, detailed understand- Washington bureacracy...

...To stay ahead of the conflicts of the which he had at the House Armed SerWorld Stage," January 29...

...think first of all of individual rights, and ple who are neither friends nor enemies, It is certainly unreasonable to expect any those who look instead at communities but indifferently related folks who toler- respect for fatherhood, motherhood, fiand their values, and see any expression ate others in varying degrees of affection delity in marriage, celibacy, or virginity of individualism as a grave challenge to or irritation...

...The question turns that role, as if the role were secondary to things is either by dilution watering evaround the comparative importance of the the fact of its "host's" womanhood...

...more than more staying power than any of its recent where a woman is not just "a woman," "What should I be in all of this...

...So much of the self is considered a threatening idea by too simple a truth to name, and yet it has current concern seems to be, "How have many, but it is an ancient one, and has had been essential in traditional cultures, I been wounded in all of this...

...Taken together U.S...

...sense of what they mean, which means the hopes, and fears, and the community's own I mention these obvious roles and cat- possibility of instruction in what they desires, hopes, and fears the communi- egories as important to the question be- mean, and this is not possible at the broadty's rights, in other words, as opposed to cause they have been generally ignored est social level...

...First, there must be some "big pic- successor states of the Soviet Union...

...E ternal influence when local conflict is driven by ultimate loyalties to ethnic, national, and religious identity...

...In a socially and relithe rights of those who appear to challenge in the ways we frame arguments...

...The cold bolic meaning, where authority means the (or no real families at all), and the marginal- war had a place for Tito's Yugoslavia...

...I would like to argue for greeting-card-level celebrations of what the individual is seen as the most imporanother approach, which may confuse being a mother or father or brother or sis- tant goal in life, nothing traditional can things but may also offer a new way into ter or son or daughter has meant at the stand...

...again be resonant, where elders are not just bolic roles...

...Mothers giously diverse society the only way to the community and its values...

...The erything down to a point at which it means rights of the individual and the commu- fact that traditional cultures have cere- very little at all, which leaves us more or nity, and of course both matter so much monies marking a boy's or girl's emer- less where we are right now or an acthat no one can claim a final victory...

...Halperin writes in a style designed sively secondary role only if he performs international politics of the last four to succeed in bureaucratic bargaining...

...position in the racy, the environment, proliferation, and (State, Defense, and National Security world...

...something that may not be immediately ried, they mean something together, and What are the responsibilities of fatherhood, apparent-a hierarchy of values and uneach means something different within the motherhood, sisterhood, brotherhood, derstandings, in other words...

...We can't have in-: battle is one between the rights of the in- posite to either role, or any neutralization struction in these roles without a common dividual, with his or her own desires, of either role...

...with assumption of responsibility more than the ization of the old-to name only a few of Tito gone, as well as the imposed disciright (that word again) to rule...

...This in itmarriage they have formed...

...Clinton presidency, the other two im- litical perspective for determining which Halperin, who will have responsibilities posed by the world confronting this ad- issues cannot be ignored and which for human rights and democracies, comministration...

...What am challengers...

...Established as icy, particularly the economy and health ing of particular situations...

...see these people in terms of what they der- and sex-related things-have taken "Friend" can be opposed to "enemy"- aren't...

...the detailed as- creative phase of that discipline (the The strength of this conviction is man- sessment of specific cases will often in- early 1960s), he went on to serve in the ifested in the public time and energy duce caution about the ability of any McNamara Pentagon, to resign from the given to the domestic agenda, in the ab- outside actor to change local conditions Kissinger White House staff (over Camsence of any foreign-policy assessment decisively...

...It isn't a dialectic so much as it is a mis- or we have sentimental, more-or-less When the satisfaction of the desires of placed argument...

...The dominant impression generated since the inauguration has been the visibility and This column is designed to ex- very well at the task, keeping major reputation of the nominations at the tend a previous commen- crises at bay, preempting trouble before Defense Department...

...A tradition (and this of course inthe question...

...level of being affirmed or wounded, with- cludes the place and meaning of symbols To what extent are we meant to be su^m- out the sense of what it means to be one and roles in a tradition) always involves holic...

...Bosnia and democracy in the last couple of ident can give foreign policy a deci- is a consequence of the major change in years...

...Clinton has engaged- the ACLU in Washington before taking the low-key policy issues...

...wants to attend to it or not, the has recruited people well-published on personnel and policy choices-they decade of the 1990s is a time of profound these themes...

...bodia), and to spend over a decade with in the State of the Union address, and in The issue Mr...

...This latter concern is, in a way, an aren't descriptions of this sort of quali- portant roles is less important than the idea expansion of the "rights" concern: the tative relationship...

...movement, but things tend to stop there- nities...

...There are overreaching cat- Our symbolic structures are seldom used church, homosexual be- egories (like "friend") that one expects to to point people to specific roles in our culhavior, men and the men's apply at a number of levels, but they ture, but they are still used to exclude...

...mar- And that is precisely what is lacking...

...They tend to A WAY OUT OF THE 'RIGHTS' WARS be generous not only in their time but in their affection: they become relatives to people they may not be related to by blood, but their generosity is at least as The questions that surround How is this woman a mother, daughter, full, and it is generally unrecognized...

...OF SEVERAL MINDS John Garvey who are single, who fall outside of traditional categories...

...J. Bryan Hehir could easily underestimate the difficulty of "doing something" in response to the THE 'STATE' OF "DEFENSE horrors of this ancient feud...

...who they are is not acknowlthe form of a fight between those who and of course there is the category of peo- edged...

...A single man means one kind of of these things in the first place...

...of marriage, the exodus from the vowed means to mean something, by virtue of hav- Bosnia also illustrates the limits of exreligious life, the lawlessness of adoles- ing been placed in a role...

...world, particularly this world of the vices Committee...

...The big picture an expert on nuclear strategy in the most care...

...The paradox Bosnia-embodies both big-picture sig- up issues of ethnicity, self-determination, of this strategy is that an American pres- nificance and local intractability...

...it is in its own way a symbol, There is also the danger of a continu- seen as geriatric patients with expensive but all by itself is not strong enough...

...We movement-all of these gen- don't work the same way as the others...

...There is a profound ex- I can't think of any way to get from here each of these roles) mother, daughter, amination of conscience for all of us here, to there, from where we are as a society sister, wife, widow...

...Les Aspin seems tary on the Clinton foreign it explodes and demands his full atten- bent on creating the kind of think tank policy ("Clinton on the tion...

...the idea of slow learning, growth into thing, a single woman means another...

...Woman" is a kind and not much help in a culture that stress- to a place in which symbols and roles may of shadowy form behind specific, sym- es our rights...

...but can be (at once, and yet different in I meant to mean...

...There isn't some op- of individual rights...

...WHERE THE BIG GUNS ARE How does the Clinton team look in light of the double demand for the big picture and discrete details...

...The internal standard is the choices must be made...

...To Council) and one major foreign-policy de- ture" architects for policy: Whether the staff these new roles in the Pentagon, he cision has been made...

...He Commonweal 26 March 1993: 9...

...change does not commit the United States Halperin of the Carnegie Endowment and The Clinton team must meet three re- to a highly activist policy, but it will pro- Graham Allison, former dean of the Kenquirements, one imposed from within the vide the historical, philosophical, and po- nedy School of Government at Harvard...

...And this is in our culture are women who wind up in arrive at a common understanding of these a no-win argument...

...the issues of women in the and so forth...

...This is almost being a son or daughter...

...As part of a general reSince then, a series of new appointments 1990s, the Clinton policy team must structuring of the Pentagon he has created have been made or proposed for second- contend with the other two requirements positions to address human rights, democlevel positions on the foreign-policy team for developing a U.S...

...provides an impetus to act...

...But "mother" and "sister" if the idea of specific symbolically imthem...

...On the whole, they tend to be "big picbe formulated in the Clinton presidency Having a solid conceptual framework to ture" analysts, best represented by two and what role the United States seeks to interpret the dimensions and degree of designates for assistant secretary: Morton play...

...Without the specific details, the U.S...

...provide a clearer sense of how policy will change in the fabric of world affairs...

...ing ugly tradition: ignoring those people problems, where roles like man, wife, fa8: 26 March 1993 Commonweal ther, mother, and child have important sym- cents who come from shattered families decades: the end of the cold war...

...gence into manhood or womanhood has ceptance of a diversity, a tolerance of When either wins finally, something es- been noted by feminists and by the men's deep differences among discrete commusential is crushed...

...I have noticed something about single people who are committed to the church, or to other organizations A ROLE OF ONE'S OWN dedicated to helping people...