Global Gender Regime" and American Foreign Policy in MENA Case Study: Hillary Clinton's Tenure at State Department

“Gender Regime change” is a global and inevitable process. Today, “Women’s status” has unprecedentedly become the standard of development. The present gender regime is constructed based on modern norms and values and there are historical evidences that support that United States has an efficient role both in defining its norms and mechanisms. The present paper, then, investigates Hillary Clinton’s tenure at the Department of State as a historical episode when women’s issues became the most significant axis of American foreign policy. The present study concentrates on the concept of “Hillary Effect” as a significant element in Americans’ interventions in women’s affairs in Islamic countries in MENA. It focuses on this fact that the US uses the academic projects and exchanges to manipulate some young scholarly Muslim women as the source of “change” and “democratization” in the region. Two projects of “TechWomen” and “NeXXt Scholars” are case studied here as typical examples of these programs. The results of the study indicate the these main strategies have been implemented: a) encouraging the sense of “leadership” and “democratization” in these women, b) taking English as the major language for communications, c) stimulating mutual motivations, d) encouraging the sense of empowerment, participation, and belonging to American culture and political thought.