“A lack of diversity, on the other hand, made it harder to introduce new ideas into the conversation. Michèle Flournoy, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy who was the highest-ranking woman at the Department of Defense in its history when she was confirmed, described this struggle as the ‘consensual straitjacket.’ She told us: ‘I think women are socialized to sort of think outside the box to solve problems, and to make connections, and to work horizontally to build networks and relationships, and to sometimes solve a problem by reexamining the basic assumptions and looking at it differently. And that just was not welcomed very much in the nuclear conversation…'”

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