Antonia Handler Chayes

Antonia "Toni" Handler Chayes (born July 21, 1929) is an American lawyer and educator who served as Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Manpower and Reserve Affairs) from 1977 to 1979 and as United States Under Secretary of the Air Force from 1979 to 1981.

Biography

Antonia Handler was born in New York City on July 21, 1929. She married Abram Chayes on December 24, 1947; they had five children, including journalist Sarah Chayes. She was educated at Radcliffe College, receiving a B.A. in 1950. She then attended Yale Law School before transferring to the Georgetown University Law Center and receiving her law degree in 1953.

After leaving the Carter Administration, Chayes joined the faculty of the John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1981, teaching there until 2003. There, she became Chair of the Project on Compliance and International Conflict Management at the Program on Negotiation. She also served on the Board of Directors of the United Technologies Corporation from 1981 to 2002. She also continued to practice law with Csaplar & Bok. In 2003, she became Professor of Practice of International Politics and Law at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Selected works with Paul M. Doty, Defending Deterrence: Managing the ABM Treaty Regime Into the 21st Century (Brassey's, 1989). with Abram Chayes, The New Sovereignty: Compliance with International Regulating Agreements (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995). with George T. Raach, eds., Peace Operations: Developing an American Strategy (Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, 1995). with Abram Chayes, Preventing Conflict in the Post-Communist World: Mobilizing International and Regional Organizations (Washington, DC: Brookings, 1996). with Abram Chayes, Alexei Arbatov, and Lara Olson, eds., Managing Conflict in the Former Soviet Union (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997). with Abram Chayes, Planning for Intervention: International Cooperation in Conflict Management (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 1999). with Martha Minow, eds., Imagine Coexistence: Restoring Humanity After Violent Conflict (San Francisco, CA: 2003). "How American Treaty Behavior Threatens National Security" in 33 International Security 45 (2008). Borderless Wars: Civil Military Disorder and Legal Uncertainty (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2015).