Condoleezza Rice: “International Support for Iraqi Democracy”

In 2005, during the second term of President George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice became the first African American woman to serve as secretary of state. In this role, as well as in her capacity as national security adviser from 2001 to 2005, Rice was one of the most influential architects of the foreign policy of the Bush administration and its war on terror in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. She was a staunch supporter of military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. She also favored moves to stabilize the Middle East; in particular, she encouraged the Israeli government to withdraw from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and supported democratic elections in Palestine. Rice has described her policy as “transformational diplomacy,” a form of diplomacy that does not simply take into account the world as it is but actively seeks to change it by expanding democracy and the principles of a free-market economy—beliefs that she outlined in such documents as her “Transformational Diplomacy” speech at Georgetown University and in her address to the World Economic Forum. Rice's influential role in the foreign policy of the Bush administration, as well as her repeatedly stated loyalty to the president, made her a target of censure from critics of the military interventions that she so forcefully championed. As national security adviser she was also harshly criticized for the lack of effective measures to prevent the 9/11 terrorist attacks. However, she has also been praised as an inspirational model for overcoming racial discrimination and forging a successful career first as an academic and then as a politician and diplomat.

Rice was born November 14, 1954, in Birmingham, Alabama, and grew up near Titusville. Throughout Rice's childhood years, Alabama strictly enforced its racial segregation laws. Growing up in a segregated state strengthened her determination to overcome a hostile context and to be considered as an individual and not merely part of a group. Rice often paid homage to those lessons of American individualism that illustrate the primacy of personal interest and self-determination. Her individualism has both an economic and a political significance. It identifies with the tenets of capitalism, such as a free market, competition, and private property, and with the concepts of consensual government and the right of citizens to choose who governs them. However, critics have pointed out that this stance seems to clash with U.S. support of authoritarian regimes in such countries as Saudi Arabia and Egypt as well as with U.S. disapproval of the democratic victory of Hamas in the January 2006 Palestinian elections.

In 1967 Rice and her family moved to Denver, Colorado. She attended a private Catholic girls' school and earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Denver in 1974. The following year she received a master's degree from the University of Notre Dame. She returned to Denver for her PhD, which she obtained from the Graduate School of International Studies in 1981. That same year she joined the Stanford University faculty as a professor of political science. From 1989 to 1991 she served in the administration of President George H.W. Bush as director and then senior director of Soviet and East European affairs on the National Security Council and as a special assistant to the president for national security affairs. Early on, Rice's main interest was the Soviet Union and the Eastern European Communist bloc. In 1993 she was appointed provost at Stanford, a position she held for six years. During her tenure she worked resolutely to balance the university budget, a stance that earned her praise from the board of trustees and criticism from some of the faculty, who deemed Rice's plan to cut millions of dollars from the budget more suitable to a corporation than to a university community.