THE LONG VIEW

It began not with treaties, but with tea: in 1972, while Nixon toasted Mao with Mao Tai, it was the American women journalists and educators who quietly built the first bridges of understanding—listening, translating, and humanizing the 'enemy.' Decades later, as U.S.-China relations again teeter on the brink of a new cold war, history whispers a forgotten truth: the most durable diplomacy often wears a skirt. When formal channels freeze, it is the women—unburdened by the armor of realpolitik—who slip through the cracks, carrying not ultimatums, but questions, empathy, and the quiet power of connection. The Carter Center’s 2026 forum is not a novelty; it is a revival of a proven, if overlooked, playbook—one that Rosalynn Carter herself understood when she championed mental health and women’s rights not as side issues, but as the very foundation of peace. From the kitchens of Tehran where she listened to Iranian women under the Shah, to the villages of Africa where she advocated for health equity, she modeled a diplomacy of presence. Now, as the world watches U.S.-China tensions rise, the Center’s choice to spotlight women is not symbolic window-dressing—it is strategic foresight rooted in a century of quiet victories. The real breakthroughs in diplomacy have never come solely from the men in suits at summit tables, but from the women who prepared the room, translated the words, and remembered the names. —Marcus Ashworth Dispatch from Signals S0