HWS: Madeleine K. Albright

MADELEINE K. ALBRIGHT

Madeleine K. Albright served as the 64th Secretary of State of the United States. She was the first woman to hold the job and is the highest-ranking woman in U.S. history.

Madeleine Albright is the founder of The Albright Group LLC, a global strategy firm.

Dr. Albright is the first Distinguished Scholar of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan Business School and is the first Michael and Virginia Mortara Endowed Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service. She is also the Chairman of The National Democratic Institute. Dr. Albright expects to complete her autobiography for publication in 2003.

As Secretary, Dr. Albright reinforced America's alliances, advocated democracy and human rights, and promoted American trade and business, labor, and environmental standards abroad.

Accomplishments during Dr. Albright 's time as Secretary included the expansion and modernization of NATO and NATO's successful campaign to reverse ethnic cleansing in Kosovo; the promotion of peace in Northern Ireland and the Middle East; the reduction of nuclear dangers from Russia and North Korea; the expansion of democracy in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America; the enactment of permanent normal trade relations with China, in a relationship of enhanced cooperation but continued pursuit of change in areas of disagreement, including human rights; and the growth of trade in the Americas, with Africa through the African Growth Opportunity Act, and through the conclusion of hundreds of other agreements that facilitated American business overseas. In June 2000, Dr. Albright and representatives from every region of the world convened the first ever conference of democracies.

Madeleine Albright also prepared America's foreign affairs institutions for 21st Century challenges. Under her leadership four Cold War bureaucracies merged into a single integrated operation. She reversed a decade-long drop in funding for America's embassies and operations overseas, persuading Congress to increase funding by 17 percent.

From 1993 - 1997, Dr. Albright served as the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations and as a member of the President's Cabinet and National Security Council. In 1995, she led the U.S. delegation to the UN's Fourth World Conference on Women, in Beijing China.

Dr. Albright was the Director of Women in Foreign Service Programs and a Research Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University during the decade prior to her return to public service. From 1989-1992, she was President of the Center for National Policy, a non-profit public policy organization based in Washington D.C.

From 1978-81, Dr. Albright was a member of President Carter's National Security Council and White House staff. From 1976-78, she served as Chief Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Edmund S. Muskie.

Dr. Albright received her B.A. with Honors, from Wellesley College, Master's and Doctorate from Columbia University's Department of Public Law and Government, as well as a Certificate from the Russian Institute.

Selected writings include Poland, the Role of the Press in Political Change (New York: Praeger with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. 1983); The Role of the Press in Political Change: Czechoslovakia 1968 (Ph.D. Dissertation, Columbia University 1976); and The Soviet Diplomatic Service: Profile of an Elite (Master's Thesis, Columbia University 1968).

Madeleine Korbel Albright was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and emigrated to America with her family after Communists took control of that country in 1948. She is the mother of three daughters and has five grandchildren.