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Madeleine Albright

 
Who2 Biography: Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of State
 
Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Albright
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  • Born: 15 May 1937
  • Birthplace: Prague, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic)
  • Best Known As: U.S. Secretary of State, 1997-2001

Name at birth: Marie Jana Körbelova

Madeleine Albright was the first woman ever to hold the post of U.S. Secretary of State. Her father was Josef Körbel, a member of the Czech diplomatic corps; the family escaped the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, and Albright lived in Belgrade, London and Prague before her family settled in Colorado. She earned a political science degree from Wellesley College in 1959, and was later awarded a master's (1968) and doctorate (1976) in public law and government from Columbia University. In 1978 she joined the staff of the National Security Council (under President Jimmy Carter) and began establishing herself as an expert in foreign affairs. President Bill Clinton named her the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 1993 and then, in late 1996, named her Secretary of State. She was confirmed in 1997, becoming the first woman ever to hold that post, and served throughout Clinton's second term. Her books include the memoir Madam Secretary (2003), The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs (2006), and Memo to the President Elect (2008).

Albright was succeeded by Colin Powell, the first African-American to be Secretary of State. He in turn was succeeded by Condoleezza Rice, the first African-American woman to be Secretary of State. Warren Christopher was Secretary of State during Clinton's first term, from 1993-96... She married Joseph Albright in 1959; they had three daughters -- twins Alice and Anna (b. 1961) and Katherine (b. 1967) -- and were divorced in 1982... In Madame Secretary, Albright comments on her first name: "I was christened Marie Jana... My grandmother nicknamed me Madla after a character in a popular show, Madla in the Brick Factory." That nickname eventually developed into the name Madeleine... In the Czech language, female children add "ova" to their family name -- hence her birth name of Körbelova, though the family name was Körbel. The family dropped the umlaut from "Korbel" while living in England during World War II.

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Biography: Madeleine Korbel Albright
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A professor and foreign policy expert, Madeleine Korbel Albright (born 1937) was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1992 to be the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations and head of the U.S. delegation to that body. President Clinton was also responsible for her appointment as the Secretary of State in 1997.

In filling the sensitive diplomatic post of ambassador to the United Nations (U.N.), President Clinton turned to a prominent Washington insider with an extensive background in academia together with strong political connections. Rewarding Madeleine Albright for her support of Democratic Party candidates and making her the second woman to serve as chief of mission at the United Nations, he also signaled the weight to be assigned to international frameworks in American foreign policy by making her a member of his cabinet.

Madeleine Korbel Albright was born on May 15, 1937, in Prague, the daughter of a Czech diplomat. At the age of 11 she came to the United States, joining her father, Josef Korbel, who was on an official assignment for his country at the U.N. but who then used the opportunity to seek political asylum in the United States for himself and his family.

Becoming a naturalized citizen, Albright pursued an academic career, starting with a B.A. from Wellesley College (1959). Pursuing graduate work at Columbia University, she received a master's degree in international affairs (1968), specializing in Soviet studies, and her Ph.D. in 1976.

Albright's subsequent career record highlights a combination of scholarly research and political activity. She was a coordinator for the unsuccessful presidential candidacy of Senator Edmund S. Muskie of Maine in 1976, later becoming his chief legislative assistant. In 1978 Albright was asked by one of her former professors at Columbia University, Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Adviser under President Carter, to join the National Security Council staff as a legislative liaison, where she remained until 1981. The following year was spent writing a book about the role of the press in bringing about political change in Poland in the period 1980 to 1982, a project conducted under a fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian Institute.

Albright's next important career milestone came in 1982, when she joined the faculty of Georgetown University and expanded both her interests and personal contacts. As a research professor of international affairs and director of women students enrolled in the foreign service program at the university's School of Foreign Service, she taught undergraduate and graduate courses in international studies, U.S. foreign relations, Russian foreign policy, and central and eastern European politics. She was also instrumental in developing programs designed to enhance professional opportunities for women in international affairs. She also became affiliated with the Georgetown University Center for Strategic and International Studies as a senior fellow in Soviet and eastern European affairs. In October of 1989 she took over the presidency of the Center for National Policy, a Washington-based nonprofit research organization formed in 1981 as a Democratic think tank with a mandate to generate discussion and study about domestic and international issues. Having been divorced, she did all this while over the years raising three daughters by herself, and still found the time to be a board member on numerous institutes, national commissions, and civic organizations ranging from the Atlantic Institute, the Boards of Trustees of Wellesley College and of Williams College, and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs to the Black Student Fund and the Washington Urban League.

Parallel with her research and teaching, Albright deepened her involvement in Democratic Party politics. She acted as an adviser to both Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro during the 1984 presidential election year; and as an adviser to Michael S. Dukakis in 1988 when he failed in his bid to defeat Republican George Bush. She was more successful, however, in 1992, when she endorsed Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton's candidacy. During the campaign she served as his senior foreign policy adviser, and in the transition period as foreign policy liaison in the White House prior to her U.N. posting.

Based clearly on the strength of her personal views and familiarity with world politics, Ambassador Albright immediately became a presence to be reckoned with at the United Nations, especially since she also represented the world's most powerful country and largest contributor to the organization's activities and budget.

Already during the first year it became evident that she saw herself as a spokesperson to three different audiences: first, to the delegations assembled in debate at the New York headquarters, articulating the American position and preferences on global problems dominating the world organization's agenda; second, to President Clinton and his administration, formulating the stand of the U.S. government on U.N.-related topics; and third, to the American public, mobilizing support for policies pursued at, and through, the United Nations. Consequently, Madeleine Albright found herself involved simultaneously in political debate, maneuvering, and consultation in the U.N. arena over such controversial questions as peace-keeping, expanding the Security Council's membership to include possibly both Germany and Japan, and clarifying the precise authority and powers of Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali; in the U.S. policymaking process in Washington; and in the ongoing national debate over the direction of American foreign relations in the 1990s.

Madeleine Albright was nominated by President Clinton in 1996 for the position of Secretary of State. In 1997 the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed her nomination. This appointment made Albright the first female to hold the position of Secretary of State. This designation also bestows her with the title of highest-ranking female within the United States government.

Shortly after her confirmation, Albright's Czech cousin revealed to reporters at the Washington Post that Albright's family were Czech Jews and not Catholics as she believed, and that three of her grandparents had perished in concentration camps. Albright stated that she was not totally surprised by the news and was quoted in Newsweek as saying, "I have been proud of the heritage that I have known about and I will be equally proud of the heritage that I have just been given." A few months later, Albright flew to Prague, toured the Old Jewish Cemetery and the Pinkas Synagogue, and was honored by the Czech president.

Meanwhile, in her diplomatic duties, she continued to play hardball. She made efforts to charm North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She interrupted her world travels to tour his home state, speak at his alma mater, and give him a t-shirt inscribed with "Somebody at the State Department Loves Me." Her efforts paid off as Helms was persuaded to work on a measure where the U.S. would repay funds owed to the U.N.

Albright began a peace mission in the Middle East in the fall of 1997, first meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September to discuss Israeli-Palestinian relations. At a joint news conference, there appeared to be a wide gap between the goals of the Clinton administration and the Israeli government. Although Albright condemned terrorist activities, she also urged Netanyahu to make concessions. While in Jerusalem, she also visited the Hall of Remembrance at Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Memorial.

She then conferred with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat before addressing Jewish and Arab students in Jerusalem, and met with Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarek, King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, and King Hussein of Jordan. Albright vowed not to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders again until they were "ready to make the hard decisions."

Further Reading

Madeleine Albright's views on foreign policy can be found in her writings, which include Poland, the Role of the Press in Political Change (1983); The Role of the Press in Political Change: Czechoslovakia 1968 (1976); and The Soviet Diplomatic Service: Profile of an Elite (1968). Information regarding her appointment as Secretary of State may be viewed at http://secretary.state.gov. Also see Time, July 28, 1997; August 4, 1997; September 15, 1997; Newsweek, February 24, 1997;September 15, 1997; U.S. News & World Report, September 1, 1997; September 22, 1997.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Madeleine Albright
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Albright, Madeleine, 1937–, American government official, b. Prague, Czechoslovakia, as Maria Jana Körbel. Her family emigrated to the United States in 1948, and she attended Wellesley College (B.A., 1959) and Columbia Univ. (M.A., 1968; Ph.D., 1976). A lifelong Democrat, she was chief legislative assistant to Senator Edmund Muskie (1976–78) and served on the staff of the National Security Council and the White House (1978–81). When the Democrats lost the White House, Albright became a professor of international affairs at Georgetown Univ. (1982–93); her Washington, D.C., home was an informal meeting place for prominent Democrats and international leaders. Albright was an adviser to Bill Clinton (1992), and the newly elected president appointed her U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 1993. A forceful promoter of American interests, she encouraged increased U.S. participation in the United Nations, often in military actions. In 1997, President Clinton named her secretary of state; serving during his second term, she was the first woman to hold the post. Upholding the administration's “assertive multilateralism,” Albright was a strong supporter of an expanded NATO and an advocate of an active U.S. foreign policy, including the use of U.S. forces to protect American interests and prevent genocide in foreign countries.

Bibliography

See her memoir, Madam Secretary (2003); biographies by A. Blackman (1998) and M. Dobbs (1999).

 
History Dictionary: Albright, Madeleine
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The first woman to become secretary of state. The daughter of a Czech diplomat, she was born in Czechoslovakia but fled to England with her family when the Nazis invaded in 1939. (Three of her grandparents, all Jews, died in Nazi concentration camps.) She returned to Czechoslovakia with her family after the war but fled again when the communists took power. Coming to America, she held various government posts and taught international relations before her appointment as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 1993. President Bill Clinton appointed her to head the State Department in 1997.

 
Wikipedia: Madeleine Albright
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Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Albright

In office
January 23, 1997 – January 20, 2001
President Bill Clinton
Preceded by Warren Christopher
Succeeded by Colin Powell

In office
January 27, 1993 – January 21, 1997
President Bill Clinton
Preceded by Edward J. Perkins
Succeeded by Bill Richardson

Nationality American, Czech
Political party Democratic
Spouse Joseph Medill Patterson Albright (1959-1982) (divorced)
Children 3 daughters - twins Anne and Alice, and Katherine (Katie)
Alma mater Wellesley College,
Johns Hopkins University,
Columbia University
Profession Diplomat
Religion Episcopalian Christian

Madeleine Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Korbelová on May 15, 1937) was the first woman to become United States Secretary of State. She was appointed by President Bill Clinton on December 5, 1996, and was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate 99-0. She was sworn in on January 23, 1997.

Contents

Personal information

Early life

Albright was born on May 15, 1937 in the Smíchov district of Prague, the capital of Czechoslovakia. At the time of her birth, Czechoslovakia had been independent for less than 20 years, having gained independence from Austria after World War One. Her father, Josef Korbel, was a Jewish Czech diplomat and supporter of the early Czech democrats, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and Edvard Beneš.[1] She was his first child with his Jewish wife Anna (née Spieglová), who later also had another daughter Katherine (a schoolteacher) and son John (an economist). At the time of Albright’s birth, Korbel was serving as press-attaché at the Czechoslovak Embassy in Belgrade. However, the signing of the Munich Agreement in March 1938 and the disintegration of Czechoslovakia at the hands of Adolf Hitler forced the family into exile because of their links with Beneš.[2] Prior to their flight, Albright's parents had converted from Judaism to Roman Catholicism.[3] Albright spent the War years in England, while her father worked for Benes’ Czechoslovak government-in-exile. They first lived on Kensington Park Road in Notting Hill, London, where they endured the worst of the Blitz, but later moved to Beaconsfield, then Walton-on-Thames, on the outer skirts of London.[4] While in England, a young Albright appeared as a refugee child in a film designed to promote sympathy for all War refugees in London.[5]

Prior to being named US Secretary of State, Albright discovered what she claims was an unknown Jewish heritage. Many of her Jewish relatives in Czechoslovakia perished in the Holocaust, including three of her grandparents.[6] Albright was raised Catholic, although later in life, she joined the Episcopal Church of USA.

After the defeat of the Nazis in the European Theatre of World War II and the collapse of Nazi Germany and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Albright and family moved back to Prague, where they were given a luxurious apartment in the Hradcany district (which later caused controversy, as it had belonged to an ethnic German Bohemian industrialist family forced out by the Beneš decrees - see "Controversies"). Korbel was named Czechoslovak Ambassador to communist Yugoslavia, and the family moved to Belgrade. Communists governed Yugoslavia, and Korbel was concerned his daughter would be indoctrinated with Marxist ideology in a Yugoslav school, so she was taught by a governess and later sent to the Prealpina Institut pour Jeunes Filles in Chexbres, on Lake Geneva in Switzerland.[7] Here, she learned French and went by Madeleine, the French version of Madlenka, her Czech nickname.[8]

However, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia took over the government in 1948, with support from the Soviet Union, and as an opponent of Communism, Korbel was forced to resign from his position.[9] He later obtained a position on a United Nations delegation to Kashmir, and sent his family to the United States, by way of London, to wait for him when he arrived to deliver his report to the UN Headquarters, then in Lake Success, New York.[9] The family arrived in New York in November 1948, and initially settled in Great Neck, on Long Island.[10] Korbel applied for political asylum, arguing that as an opponent of Communism he was now under threat in Prague.[11] With the help of Philip Mosely, a professor of Russian at Columbia University, Korbel obtained a position on the staff of the political science department at the University of Denver.[12] He became dean of the University’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies, and later taught future US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.[1]

Education

Albright spent her teen years in Denver, and graduated from Kent Denver School in 1955, where she founded the school’s international relations club and was its first president.[13] She attended Wellesley College on a full scholarship, majoring in political science and graduating in 1959.[14] Her senior thesis was written on Czech Communist Zdenek Fierlinger.[15] She became a US citizen in 1957, and joined the College Democrats.[16]

While home in Denver from Wellesley, Albright worked as an intern for The Denver Post, where she met Joseph Medill Patterson Albright, the nephew of Alicia Patterson, owner of Newsday and wife of philanthropist Harry Frank Guggenheim.[17] The couple were married in 1959, shortly after her graduation, in Wellesley.[14] They lived first in Rolla, Missouri, while he served his military service at nearby Fort Leonard Wood.[18] During this time, she worked at the Rolla Daily News.[18]

In January 1960 the couple moved to his hometown of Chicago, where he worked at the Chicago Sun-Times as a journalist, and Albright worked as a picture editor for Encyclopedia Brittanica.[19] The following year, Joseph Albright began work at Newsday in New York City, and the couple moved to Garden City, Long Island.[20] That year, she gave birth to twin daughters Alice Patterson and Anne Korbel Albright. The twins were six weeks premature, and required a long hospital stay, so as a distraction, Albright began Russian classes at Hofstra University.[20] In 1962, the family moved to Georgetown in Washington, D.C., and Albright began studying international relations and Russian at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.[21] However, in 1963 Alicia Patterson died, and the family returned to Long Island with the notion of Joseph taking over the family business.[22] Albright gave birth to another daughter, Katherine Medill Albright, in 1967, and continued her studies at Columbia University.[23] She earned a certificate in Russian, an M.A. and Ph.D, writing her M.A. dissertation on the Soviet diplomatic corps, and her Ph.D thesis on the role of journalists in the Prague Spring of 1968.[24] She also took a graduate course given by Zbigniew Brzezinski, who would later be her boss at the National Security Council.[25]

The family returned to Washington in 1968, and Albright commuted to Columbia for her PhD, which she received in 1975.[26] She began fund-raising for her daughter’s school, which led to several positions on education boards.[27] She was eventually invited to organize a fund-raising dinner for Senator Ed Muskie of Maine’s presidential campaign in 1972.[28] This association with Muskie led to a position as his chief legislative assistant in 1976.[29] However, after the election of Jimmy Carter in 1976, Albright's former professor Zbigniew Brzezinski was named National Security Advisor, and recruited Albright from Muskie in 1978 to work in the West Wing as the National Security Council’s congressional liaison.[29] Following Carter's loss in 1980 to Ronald Reagan, Albright moved on to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian Institution, where she was given a grant for a research project.[30] She chose to write on the dissident journalists involved in Poland's Solidarity movement, then in its infancy but gaining international attention.[30] She traveled to Poland for her research, interviewing dissidents in Gdansk, Warsaw and Krakow.[31] Upon her return to Washington, her husband announced his intention to divorce her for another woman.[32]

In addition to her PhD, Albright was also awarded Honorary Doctors of Laws from the University of Washington in 2002, University of Winnipeg in 2005, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2007 and Knox College in 2008 [33] Today, Secretary Albright is once again a professor at Georgetown, and serves as a Director on the Board of the Council on Foreign Relations.[34]

Albright is multilingual, being fluent in English, French, and Czech in addition to Russian, with good speaking and reading abilities in Polish and Serbo-Croatian.

Career

Madeleine Albright has served as a lecturer in political science and international relations at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. since 1982, specializing in Eastern European studies.[35] She has also directed the University's program on women in global politics.[36] She has also served as a major Democratic Party foreign policy advisor, and briefed Vice-Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis in 1988 (both campaigns ended in defeat).[37] In 1992, Bill Clinton returned the White House to the Democrats, and Albright was employed to handle the transition to a new administration at the National Security Council.[38] In January 1993, Clinton nominated her to be United States Ambassador to the United Nations, her first diplomatic posting.[39]

United States Ambassador to the United Nations

Albright was appointed ambassador to the UN, her first diplomatic post, shortly after Clinton was inaugurated, presenting her credentials on February 9, 1993. During her tenure at the UN, she had a rocky relationship with the United Nations Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali. She did not take action against the genocide in Rwanda.[clarification needed] Albright later remarked in PBS documentary Ghosts of Rwanda that

it was a very, very difficult time, and the situation was unclear. You know, in retrospect, it all looks very clear. But when you were [there] at the time, it was unclear about what was happening in Rwanda."[40]

In Shake Hands with the Devil, Roméo Dallaire claims that in 1994, in Albright's role as the United States' UN permanent representative, she led efforts to deny declaring the massacres in Rwanda genocide.[41][verification needed] In the same book he claims that the State Department instructed the White House press secretary to avoid using the words "genocide" and to substitute the terms "acts of genocide". She also led resistance to a new mandate to a new UN mission towards "ensuring" stability and security in the provinces of Rwanda.[42][verification needed]

She was also criticized for defending the UN sanctions against Iraq (under Saddam Hussein) in a 1996 interview with Lesley Stahl on a segment of CBS's 60 Minutes[43] that, according to Albright, ignored

Saddam's culpability, his misuse of Iraqi resources, or the fact that we were not embargoing medicine or food. I was exasperated that our TV was showing what amounted to Iraqi propaganda.[44]

When asked by Stahl, "We have heard that half a million children have died [as a result of sanctions]. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?" Albright replied: "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price — we think the price is worth it."[44][45] She expressed regret for this remark in 2001[46] and when she wrote in her 2003 autobiography,

I must have been crazy; I should have answered the question by reframing it and pointing out the inherent flaws in the premise behind it. […] As soon as I had spoken, I wished for the power to freeze time and take back those words. My reply had been a terrible mistake, hasty, clumsy, and wrong. […] I had fallen into a trap and said something that I simply did not mean. That is no one’s fault but my own.[44]

This "trap" has been identified as a loaded question.[47][48] Her failure to "refram[e the question] and point[] out [its] inherent flaws"[44] has been called "the non-denial heard 'round the world"[46] because "by not challenging the statistic, Albright inadvertently lent credence to it."[47] When asked about her response in 2005, Albright said "I never should have made it, it was stupid," and that she still supported the concept of tailored sanctions.[49]

Both Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright insisted that an attack on Hussein could only be stopped if Hussein reversed his decision to halt arms inspections. "Iraq has a simple choice. Reverse course or face the consequences," Albright said.[50]

The lawyers of Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-Owhali, convicted in the 1998 bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, used Albright's 60 Minutes comment in an attempt to save the terrorist from the death penalty.[51]

Also in 1996, after Cuban military pilots shot down two small civilian aircraft flown by the Cuban-American exile group Brothers to the Rescue over international waters, she announced, "This is not cojones. This is cowardice." The line reportedly endeared her to President Clinton. Boutros Boutros-Ghali's spokesperson Sylvana Foa said of Albright, "She's no shrinking violet. She can be biting."[citation needed]

Secretary of State

When Madeleine Albright was confirmed as the 64th Secretary of State of the United States, she became the first female United States Secretary of State and the highest-ranking woman in the history of the United States government. Not being a natural born citizen of the United States, she was not eligible as Presidential Successor and was excluded from nuclear contingency plans. As Secretary, Dr. Albright reinforced America’s alliances, advocated democracy and human rights, and promoted American trade and business, labor and environmental standards abroad.

During her tenure, Albright considerably influenced American policy in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Middle East. She incurred the wrath of a number of Serbs in the former Yugoslavia for her role in participating in the formulation of US policy during the Kosovo War and Bosnian war as well as the rest of the Balkans. But, together with President Bill Clinton, she remains a largely popular figure in the rest of the region, especially Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Croatia. According to Albright's memoirs, she once argued with Colin Powell for the use of military force by asking, "What’s the point of you saving this superb military for, Colin, if we can't use it?"[52]

With NATO officers during the NATO Ceremony of Accession of New Members in 1999

As Secretary of State she represented the United States at the Handover of Hong Kong on July 1, 1997. She boycotted the swearing-in ceremony of the China-appointed Legislative Council, which replaced the elected one, along with the British contingents.[53]

According to several accounts, the American ambassador to Kenya, Prudence Bushnell, repeatedly asked Washington for additional security at the embassy in Nairobi, including in an April 1998 letter directly to Albright. Bushnell was ignored.[54] In "Against All Enemies," Richard Clarke writes about an exchange with Albright several months after the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed in August 1998. "What do you think will happen if you lose another embassy?" Clarke asked. "The Republicans in Congress will go after you." "First of all, I didn't lose these two embassies," Albright shot back. "I inherited them in the shape they were." Albright was booed in 1998 when the brief war threat with Iraq revealed that citizens were opposed to such an invasion, although this is often overlooked.

In 1998, at the NATO summit, Albright articulated what would become known as the "three Ds" of NATO, "which is no diminution of NATO, no discrimination and no duplication—because I think that we don't need any of those three "Ds" to happen."[55]

In 2000, Secretary Albright became one of the highest level Western diplomats ever to meet Kim Jong-il, the communist leader of North Korea, during an official state visit to that country.[56]

In one of her last acts as Secretary of State, Albright on January 8, 2001, paid a farewell call on Kofi Annan and said that the United States would continue to press Iraq to destroy all its weapons of mass destruction as a condition of lifting economic sanctions, even after the end of the Clinton administration on January 20, 2001.[57]

Post-2001 career

Madeleine Albright at World Economic Forum

Following Albright's term as US Secretary of State, many speculated that she might pursue a career in Czech politics. Czech President Václav Havel talked openly about the possibility of Albright succeeding him after he retired in 2002. Albright was reportedly flattered by suggestions that she should run for office, but denied ever seriously considering it.[58] She was the 2nd recipient of the Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award presented by the Prague Society for International Cooperation.

In 2001, Albright founded the Albright Group, an international strategy consulting firm based in Washington, D.C.[59] It has Coca-Cola, Merck, Dubai Ports World, and Marsh & McLennan Companies among its clients, who benefit from the access that Albright has through her global contacts.[60][61] Affiliated with the firm is Albright Capital Management, which was founded in 2005 to engage in private fund management related to emerging markets.[61]

Albright currently serves on the Council on Foreign Relations Board of directors and on the International Advisory Committee of the Brookings Doha Center.[62] She is also currently the Mortara Distinguished Professor of Diplomacy at the Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service in Washington, DC. On October 25, 2005, Albright guest starred on the TV drama Gilmore Girls as herself.

In 2003, she accepted a position on the Board of Directors of the New York Stock Exchange. In 2005, Albright declined to run for re-election to the Board in the aftermath of the Grasso compensation scandal, in which the Chairman of the NYSE Board of Directors, Dick Grasso, had been granted $187.5-million dollars in compensation, with little governance by the board on which Albright sat. During the tenure of the interim chairman, John S. Reed, Albright served as chairwoman of the NYSE board's nominating and governance committee. Shortly after the appointment of the NYSE board's permanent chairman in 2005, Albright submitted her resignation.[63]

On January 5, 2006, she participated in a meeting at the White House of former Secretaries of Defense and State to discuss United States foreign policy with George W. Bush administration officials. On May 5, 2006 she was again invited to the White House to meet with former Secretaries and Bush administration officials to discuss Iraq.

Albright currently serves as chairperson of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and as president of the Truman Scholarship Foundation. She is also the co-chair of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor and held the Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders Women's Ministerial Initiative up until November 16, 2007, succeeded by Margot Wallström.

In an interview given to Newsweek International published July 24, 2006, Albright gave her opinion on current United States foreign policy. Albright said: "I hope I'm wrong, but I'm afraid that Iraq is going to turn out to be the greatest disaster in American foreign policy—worse than Vietnam."[64]

In September 2006, she received the Menschen in Europa Award, with Václav Havel, for furthering the cause of international understanding.[65]

Albright has mentioned her physical fitness and exercise regimen in several interviews. She has said she is capable of leg pressing 400 pounds.[66][67]

At the National Press Club in Washington on November 13, 2007, Albright declared that she with William Cohen would co-chair a new "Genocide Prevention Task Force"[68] created by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the American Academy of Diplomacy, and the United States Institute for Peace. Their appointment was criticized by Harut Sassounian[69] and the Armenian National Committee of America.[70]

On May 13, 2007, two days before her 70th birthday, Albright received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[71]

Albright speaks during the third night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.

Albright endorsed and supported Hillary Clinton in her 2008 campaign for President of the United States. Albright has been a close friend of Secretary of State Clinton and serves as her top informal advisor on foreign policy matters. She is currently serving as a top advisor for United States President Barack Obama in a working group on national security. On December 1, 2008, President-elect Obama nominated then-Senator Clinton for Albright's former post of Secretary of State.

Books

After her retirement, Albright published her memoir, Madam Secretary (2003), The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs (2006) and Memo to the President Elect: How We Can Restore America's Reputation and Leadership (2008).

Controversies

Stolen art

Madeleine Albright's father, Josef Korbel, allegedly appropriated artwork which belonged to Bohemian German industrialist Karl Nebrich, who owned the confiscated Prague apartment later given to Korbel after World War II and the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia (1945-1950). Like most other German-speakers living in Czechoslovakia, Nebrich and his family were forcibly expelled from the country under the postwar Beneš decrees. The claim is being pressed by Philipp Harmer, the great-grandson of Karl Nebrich.[72]

Radovan Karadžić

During his first hearing in front of the ICTY, Radovan Karadžić stated that Madeleine Albright[73] along with Richard Holbrooke offered him a deal which would allow him not to get prosecuted for asserted war crimes if he would disappear from public life and politics. According to Karadžić, Albright offered him to get out of the way and go to Russia, Greece, or Serbia and open a private clinic or to at least go to Bijeljina.[74] He also said that Holbrooke or Albright would like to see him disappear and expressed the fear for his life by saying "I do not know how long the arm of Mr Holbrooke or Mrs Albright is ... or whether that arm can reach me here."[75]

References

  1. ^ a b Dobbs, Michael (December 28, 2000). "Josef Korbel's Enduring Foreign Policy Legacy". The Washington Post. p. A05. http://www.anti-communistanalyst.com/josef_korbel.html. Retrieved on 2009-04-09. 
  2. ^ Albright, Madeleine K. Madam Secretary, 2003, pp. 8-9
  3. ^ Choosing to remain a 'forced convert', Ari Beker, Haaretz, Oct 12, 2006
  4. ^ Albright, 2003, pp. 9-11
  5. ^ Albright, 2003, p. 9.
  6. ^ Shear, Michael D. (September 20, 2006). "Allen Says He Embraces His Jewish Ancestry". The Washington Post. p. A01. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/19/AR2006091901141.html. Retrieved on 2007-02-14. 
  7. ^ Albright, 2003, p. 15
  8. ^ Albright, 2003, p. 4
  9. ^ a b Albright, 2003, p. 17
  10. ^ Albright, 2003, p. 18
  11. ^ Albright, 2003, p. 19-20
  12. ^ Albright, 2003, p. 20
  13. ^ Albright, 2003, p. 24
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  15. ^ Albright, 2003, p. 43
  16. ^ Albright, 2003, p. 34-5
  17. ^ Albright, 2003, p. 36
  18. ^ a b Albright, 2003, p. 48
  19. ^ Albright, 2003, p.49-50
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  27. ^ Albright, 2003, p. 63-66
  28. ^ Albright, 2003, p. 65
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  38. ^ Albright, 2003, p. 127
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External links

Political offices
Preceded by
Warren Christopher
United States Secretary of State
Served under: Bill Clinton
1997 – 2001
Succeeded by
Colin Powell
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
Edward J. Perkins
United States Ambassador to the United Nations
1993 – 1997
Succeeded by
Bill Richardson

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Who2 Biography. Copyright © 1998-2008 by Who2, LLC. All rights reserved. See the Madeleine Albright biography from Who2.  Read more
Biography. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
History Dictionary. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Madeleine Albright" Read more

 

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