A couple of important sounding professors were having a discussion about the lack of women in positions of power in government departments.

Invariably jobs such as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs or jobs in the foreign office usually were filled by men – which raised an interesting question.

Where would the world stand in terms of waging war if more women were in charge of these positions?

Would there be a different approach to sorting out global problems, one without the need for full-on conflict or threatening to drag the nuclear weapons collection of storage?

Now it might sound like a simplistic argument based on stereotypes but you have to admit it's one worth having.

And it got me thinking quite a bit.

What if more women were in charge of matters of foreign affairs or defence? Surely there'd be less testosterone flying about the place, less table thumping and less of the let's-give-Johnny-Foreigner-a-damn-good-thumping mentality?

Yes, women would get around the table instead of trying to leap on to it.

They would probably do so over nice cups of tea, served in the best china and over plates of amply-buttered scones or perhaps a good slice of Victoria sponge.

"Now let's sort this out nicely" would be the attitude with good manners and respect for one's neighbours being watchwords of their discussions.

It's all in the genetic make-up – whether we like it or not – and try as we might, those maternal feelings of protecting our own (but doing it is a rational way) would surface no matter how much we tried to suppress them.

Basically the best policy would be to have a whole load of mums around the table trying to work out a solution that would suit everyone and cause as little upset and discomfort as possible into the bargain.

You might argue that we did once have a woman Prime Minister and she definitely did not have the softly, softly touch.

She was "not for turning" as she only too often liked to remind us. But perhaps she was the exception to the rule.

Women on the whole do tend to be less confrontational, less physically confrontational at any rate, than men and usually they can sweet-talk their enemies into surrender – or at least compromise.

As a result a conversation might go like this: "Now come on, admit it, we know you are hiding some weapons of mass destruction somewhere. So be a good boy, tell us where and all of this can be forgotten by bedtime."

The next step might be sanctions, as in: "If you don't tell us, then I'm afraid we're not going to buy any more of your oil and you wouldn't like that, would you?"

Failing that, the last resort would be bribery (a good mum always has this up her sleeve): "Have you tried my Melting Moments Mr Bin Laden?"