![]() Similarly, when working with Russia, she knew how important it was to cooperate and consult, but she also knew when to be firm. ![]() commitment to their freedom and security. For in the cases of Kosovo and NATO expansion, her involvement made a decisive difference.īecause Albright understood the Central and East European mindset, with all its anxieties and insecurities, she knew exactly how to reassure these countries about the U.S. Indeed, after her passing, President Clinton paid tribute to her historic role in building a Europe free and at peace. While Albright worked on each of these portfolios and many more, it was her unique expertise and determination on matters European that most stand out in my mind. James Rubin, spokesman for Madeleine Albright at international conference on Kosovo on Feb. That is a management lesson worth remembering. Yes, this was the unique moment of American ascendance people talk so much about, when the French Foreign Minister dubbed us the “hyperpower.” But it was Albright, backed by Clinton’s confident second-term leadership on foreign policy, who wanted to take full advantage of that moment in history by building a team that could do it, regardless of those strong personalities. In addition to her work to prevent a potential genocide of Kosovar Albanians, bring peace and democratic change to the Balkans and expand NATO to include Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, there were diplomatic achievements in the Middle East (the Wye River agreement), implementation of agreements to prevent North Korea from becoming a nuclear weapons state, the creation of the war crimes tribunals for Rwanda, Bosnia and Kosovo, the comprehensive assistance package “Plan Columbia” to help that country’s transformation into a democratic success story, elevating the issue of women’s rights in American diplomacy, the containment of Iraq and Iran, the leap forward in relations with India, the strengthening of security relations with Japan, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (2000), the ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention, negotiations on strategic nuclear arms with Russia and much more. That was just her way.Īnd that is why others might not have accomplished so much. I daresay that others in her position would not necessarily have picked that kind of team, but Albright wanted what was best for the government as a whole, even though she knew that it would make her job harder and criticism more likely. (When the two of them traveled together, inevitably someone was heard joking that “the egos have landed.”) These are just a few names from what must have been one of the strongest State Department teams of recent times. And Richard Holbrooke was a special envoy for the Balkans along with Bob Gelbard. Morton Halperin was director of policy planning much of the time. She had Dennis Ross as Middle East peace envoy. The two undersecretaries were Tom Pickering and Stuart Eizenstat. For example, when she became secretary of State, she confided in me that she had decided to try to hire the strongest possible team, even if that meant the difficulty of dealing with the above-average male egos that inevitably come with strong personalities. And it took a lot of confidence and charm to operate as the only woman. ![]() She laughed and asked: “Why did it take so long?”)īack then, it really was different. Today, of the 38 leading democracies which make up the OECD, more than half were represented by female foreign or finance ministers at the first meeting I attended. (Some 28 years later, I called her from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris to tell her that a lot had changed since her club of six. So, naturally she started a lunch club for the six of them. At the time, of the 180-odd countries, there were only five other female ambassadors. Security Council with 14 male ambassadors. At the United Nations, she used to joke that if she ever wrote a book it would be called “14 Suits and a Skirt,” as she spent most of her time in the U.N. In the 1990s, Secretary Albright really was a woman alone in a sea of men.
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