Isobel Coleman

Returning to international affairs, Coleman became a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, where she focused on the political economy of the Middle East. In 2002, she founded CFR’s Women and Foreign Policy program to focus foreign policy attention on the importance of improving the status of women around the world. In 2010, she became the founding director of CFR’s Civil Society, Markets and Democracy program.

Coleman is well known for her writing on women and economic development, including her groundbreaking article, "The Payoff From Women’s Rights" (Foreign Affairs, May 2004).[4] She has also published widely about gender in the Middle East, including her 2010 book Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women are Transforming the Middle East (Random House),[5] which the Los Angeles Times described as "outstanding"[6] and The Economist as "nuanced."[7] In 2012, she was the commencement speaker at Effat University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.[8] In 2013, she delivered a talk at TedxMidAtlantic on how women are transforming the Middle East.[9]

While at CFR, Coleman also published on a broad range of economic and political issues, including the challenge of post-revolution transition in Middle East countries such as Egypt and Tunisia,[10] youth unemployment in the Middle East,[11] and the region’s need for fuel subsidy reform.[12] She is the author, co-author and editor of, and contributor to, numerous books, including Women and Girls Rising: Progress and Resistance Around the World (Routledge, 2015), Pathways to Freedom: Political and Economic Lessons From Democratic Transitions (Council on Foreign Relations, 2013),[13] The Unfinished Revolution: Voices from the Global Fight for Women’s Rights (Seven Stories Press, 2012),[14] Restoring the Balance: A Middle East Strategy for the Next President (Brookings Institution Press, 2008),[15] and Strategic Foreign Assistance: Civil Society in International Security (Hoover Press, 2006).[16]

On September 12, 2014, President Barack Obama nominated Coleman to be U.S. representative to the United Nations for management and reform. She appeared before the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations for a confirmation hearing on December 2, 2014. In her statement before the Committee, Coleman noted the significant gap between the promise of the UN and the reality of its shortcomings, and vowed to ensure that the "UN is deploying its resources in the most efficient and effective way."[17] She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on December 16, 2014.

Coleman led U.S. efforts to reform the $40 billion UN system by imposing fiscal discipline, increasing transparency and accountability, and driving structural changes. During her tenure, the U.S. secured more than $500 million in annual peacekeeping budget reductions through the right-sizing of missions; the elimination of hundreds of UN back-office positions through automation; the first revision to the compensation package for UN staff, resulting in annual savings of more than $100 million; and significant efficiencies in the use of UN real estate.

Coleman was also a leader on the U.S. efforts to combat sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers, helping to secure watershed resolutions that increased transparency through the naming of those countries with troops accused of abuses, and increased penalties through the repatriation of entire military contingents in the case of unaddressed or repeated abuse.[18] She was the administration's chief spokesperson on these issues, testifying several times before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.[19] Additionally, she fought to end the unfair exclusion of Israel within the UN system, including by successfully negotiating a milestone agreement to recognize Yom Kippur as an official UN holiday. During the fall of 2016 and early 2017, Coleman represented the United States in the UN Security Council, with responsibility for Africa, Asia and peacekeeping issues. In that capacity, she negotiated Security Council resolutions on South Sudan, Darfur, The Gambia, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and North Korea. She was also the lead negotiator of UN Security Council Resolution 2320 for stronger cooperation between the UN and the African Union.

In November 2020, Coleman was named a member of the Joe Biden presidential transition Agency Review Team to support transition efforts related to the United States Mission to the United Nations.[20]