On Friday, April 21, 2006, Former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright addressed the 88th Phi Theta Kappa International Convention and responded to questions from a panel of Phi Theta Kappa alumni.
Dr. Albright’s keynote address formally launched Phi Theta Kappa’s 2006-08 Honors Study Topic, Gold, Gods and Glory: The Global Dynamics of Power. Her career in foreign affairs and public service provided a wealth of experience related to this topic and the leadership challenges the world faces. A native of Czechoslovakia, Albright and her family sought refuge from the Nazis in Yugoslavia during World War II, then fled to the United States to escape communist persecution. She began her distinguished career in public service in the 1970s as a Carter Administration White House staff member and member of the National Security Council responsible for the formulation of foreign policy legislation. She later served as Chief Legislative Assistant to Senator Edmund Muskie. From 1993 to 1997 Albright served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations and in 1997 became the first female Secretary of State during President Clinton’s second term. During her years at the U.N. and as Secretary of State, Albright was instrumental in formulating policy, worked closely with hundreds of world leaders, and frequently traveled on peacekeeping missions.
In her address, Albright outlined a number of principles she believes essential to creating positive world change. Citing H.G. Wells’ quote “History is a race between education and catastrophe,” Albright added that we must create education around the principle that every individual counts and it’s purpose is “to teach everyone how to live wiser and more meaningful lives.” Forging global alliances around such principles will be required to “rebutt, marginalize, and defeat those who want to teach terrorist principles” said Albright. It will take the right kind of education to avert catastrophe and we must take and hold the high ground against leaders, including religious leaders we can no longer exclude from global politics and diplomacy, who teach that it is right to kill. She went on to say that terrorism is never justified and always wrong just as apartheid, genocide, and slavery are always wrong, and global alliances are necessary to defeat all of them.
Albright emphasized the need to care for the world’s children, saying “We musn’t lead only on what we are against, but also on what we are for.” In particular this means combating poverty, ignorance, and disease. She reiterated that these are also foes we can and must rebutt, marginalize, and defeat, and not hopeless causes, pointing to progress in Asia where misery and want are no longer inevitable and the circle of prosperity is enlarging.
Albright also called on exisiting and emerging leaders in the audience to always ask questions. It is essential to decision making as well as for effective oversight in any endeavor, and Albright termed such inquisitiveness a duty. She decried the current climate in which people who ask questions about policies or programs are often accused of being unpatriotic. “I see it the other way around,” she said, “it is not unpatriotic to do so, but an obligation.”
Albright has continued her studies of diplomacy and international politics since leaving the State Department and the Cabinet. Secretary Albright has been a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian Institution and a Senior Fellow in Soviet and Eastern European Affairs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She is a co-founder and president of the Center for National Policy and a former Research Professor of International Affairs and Director of Women in Foreign Service Program at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
Today former Secretary Albright is once again a professor at Georgetown University in Washington. She also chairs the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs.
Madam Secretary: A Memoir is her autobiographical account of her years in the State Department. Her new book, The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God and World Affairs, is now available from Harper Collins.
[Monika Byrd, May 2006]
Questions or Comments about Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Briefs may be directed to Monika Byrd, Director of Leadership Development Programs.
