Madeleine Albright

2022 - 3 - 24

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Longtime diplomat born in Prague was the first woman to serve as US secretary of state.

Leadership Lessons From Madeleine Albright, The First Female Secretary Of State (unknown)

Madeleine Albright, the first female U.S. Secretary of State, was a world-class leader who leaves behind several lessons for business executives.

Cox said that “As a woman in corporate roles for over 30 years, Madeleine Albright provided a vision of what an ‘older’ woman could do. Magdalena Johndrow is a financial advisor and the managing partner of Financial Johndrow Wealth Management. Johndrow recalled that Albright, “was famous for always wearing intricate brooches to important meetings. Organizational psychologist and executive coach Gena Cox, head of advisory and research at Feels Human Partners, thought that “Madeleine Albright showed the world that leaders must have a value system, a point-of-view, a ‘why’ as their North Star. That North Star can help you define your moral redline, and that redline can define your actions. He recalled that Albright said, “As a leader, you have to have the ability to assimilate new information and understand that there might be a different view.” Leadership doesn’t require that one have all the answers…or pretend to. “Her actions taught me that it’s not always what you say, but how you say it. Albright said, “Life is grim, and we don’t have to be grim all the time.” Leaders' actions are like ping-pong balls without such a compass, and they lose followership. “Running a profitable business is important. “Madeleine Albright's four decades at Georgetown University created almost two generations of world leaders who are all well-versed in diplomacy. Leadership requires flexibility and the willingness to adapt as we acquire new information. That’s what role models do, they shine the light that allows others to find their way,” she commented. "Condoleezza Rice saw that light and so did Hillary Clinton, quite literally following in her footsteps.

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Image courtesy of "CNA"

Madeleine Albright, first female US secretary of state, dies at 84 (CNA)

Tapped by president Bill Clinton as ambassador to the United Nations then as the US top diplomat, Albright was one of the most influential stateswomen of her ...

"I also have never thought of myself as the tall, silent type, so I will be the short, noisy type and I am going to stay out there," she said. They had three daughters and divorced in 1982. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement

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Former US secretary of state Albright 'leaves mixed legacy' on China (South China Morning Post)

The first woman to become America's top diplomat, who has died at the age 84, was a strong supporter of engagement with Beijing.

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Madeleine Albright, former US secretary of state and feminist icon ... (The Straits Times)

WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - Ms Madeleine Albright, who fled the Nazis as a child in her native Czechoslovakia during World War II then rose to become the first ...

One, "Hell and Other Destinations," was published in April 2020. The plain-spoken Ms Albright made forays into popular culture. Ms Albright's experience as a refugee prompted her to push for the United States to use its superpower clout. She followed her father into academia but also became involved in Democratic Party politics. They divorced in 1982. "Madeleine Albright was a force. In 2018, she and fellow former secretaries of state Colin Powell and Hillary Clinton briefed a fictional secretary of state in "Madam Secretary", a TV drama where she spoke passionately about the dangers of abusive nationalism. Her father, a diplomat and academic who opposed communism, moved the family to the United States where he taught international studies at the University of Denver. One favourite was a snake brooch, a reference to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein calling her an "unparalleled serpent". She wrote a book about her signature jewellery, one of several bestsellers, explaining that the pins were a diplomatic tool. Once the Clinton years and the 1990s were over, Ms Albright became an icon to a generation of young women looking for inspiration in their quest for opportunity and respect in the workplace. She wanted a "muscular internationalism," said Mr James O'Brien, a senior adviser to Ms Albright during the Bosnian war. He then nominated her to become the first female secretary of state and she served in that role from 1997-2001.

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Madeleine Albright saw US as an 'indispensable nation' and NATO ... (The Conversation US)

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has died at age 84. But many of the foreign policy concepts she helped bring to the post-Cold War world remain.

The advisability of NATO enlargement will be hotly debated for years to come and Albright’s role in the process should not be spared scrutiny. Now that rival states are more willing to punch back, it is far riskier for U.S. leaders to perform the role of indispensable nation. It is understandable, perhaps, that she wanted to harness this awesome power toward causes such as nurturing freedom and democracy in countries that had struggled for decades to rid themselves of authoritarianism. It would be Albright’s lasting regret that the U.S. failed to intervene in Rwanda in 1994 and stop the slaughter. She saw the alliance as a conduit through which the United States could impart peace, order and good governance upon a fragile European continent. When the Soviet Union disappeared in 1991, so did the primary justification for America’s enormous troop presence abroad and globe-spanning web of military alliances.

Madeleine Albright kept up her trailblazing work long after being secretary of state (unknown)

Albright, who arrived in the U.S. as an 11-year-old refugee, became the first woman to serve as secretary of state. She died on Wednesday at the age of 84.

"So I went up to him and I said, 'Can you believe that a refugee is secretary of state?' " "She turned to me as a counselor and said, 'Could you organize the State Department to talk about Islam?' " Sherman said. "It was an indication of her ability to be political." "But it had nothing to do with her getting the job." "She was happy to wield it in her own way." "Madeleine said to him, 'When your government names a woman to head the delegation, I will spend considerable time with her as well.' " Albright, at 4 feet 10 inches tall, stood out in her cherry suit and pearls in the all-male group. Albright had a long and storied career in foreign policy, serving as U. S. ambassador to the United Nations from 1993-97 before reaching the pinnacle of diplomacy: secretary of state. "This all started when ... Saddam Hussein called me a serpent," Albright told NPR in 2009. "As difficult as it might seem, I want every stage of my life to be more exciting than the last." It would never have happened, but I would have felt better about my own role in this." "She said, 'Where's Wonder Woman?' So they did a Wonder Woman comic book as well.

Madeleine Albright had a lot to say about Putin — and she didn't mince words (unknown)

The former U.S. secretary of state recalled the first time she met Russian President Vladimir Putin back in 1999 during the Clinton administration.

"I think he is somebody that is very competent in his capabilities generally. "But Russia is alone. Albright spoke with NPR last June ahead of a meeting in Geneva between Russian and U.S. leaders. "But my impression in the second two meetings were that he very much liked the background of being in the Kremlin with all its history, that he was smart, that he was prepared and that he had a view about how things were going to go," Albright added. The former secretary of state recalled the first time she met Putin, in 1999, and emphasized that his agenda was clear from the beginning. When Madeleine Albright met Russian leader Vladimir Putin more than 20 years ago as the U.S. secretary of state, she said he was trying to ingratiate himself to then-President Bill Clinton — but Putin also "had a view of how things were going to go."

Madeleine Albright, the First Woman Secretary of State, Dies at 84 (unknown)

WASHINGTON — Madeleine Albright was the quintessential late 20th-century Jewish diplomat, haunted by the Holocaust and determined to use what tools her adopted ...

“The epitome of mensch in the best and broadest sense of the word.” That led to difficult questions: If Albright knew she was Jewish in 1993 or 1994, why did she not reveal it until 1997, when a newspaper was about to go public? “Maybe she was afraid that her stature would be diminished before her international colleagues if they knew of her Jewish roots. Maybe she felt her aspirations to become secretary of state would be jeopardized if her family history was confirmed.” Her optimism may have blinded her to how deeply embedded in Iran’s political culture was its resistance to compromise. Netanyahu planned a dramatic signal that he was ready to leave the talks. Albright, an early backer of Bill Clinton when he was a relatively unknown Arkansas governor, was his first U. N. ambassador, repayment in part for the money she helped raise for his campaign. She was behind Clinton’s decision to confront the Serbian military in 1999 as it bore down on Kosovo. Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic once told her, “Madam Secretary, you are not well informed.” Albright, whose father Josef Korbel, had served as a diplomat in Belgrade, countered, “Don’t tell me I’m uninformed — I lived here.” In 1998, at U. S.-mediated talks with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at Wye River, Maryland, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was resisting concessions as Bill Clinton sought to advance the Oslo Accords Netanyahu had reviled. She lobbied for airstrikes against Serbian targets, once telling Colin Powell, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “What’s the point of having this superb military you’re always talking about if we can’t use it?” Powell, famous for his Vietnam-era-founded reluctance for military intervention, said the question nearly caused him an “aneurysm.” “This is cowardice.” She called State Department bureaucrats, whom she never fully trusted, “The White Boys.” Albright was adept at outmaneuvering statesmen — always men — who thought they knew much better than she did.

The gift Madeleine Albright leaves is showing us what's possible (unknown)

Today, as Ukraine defends itself against military forces from Russia, Albright's journey is especially important.

And you have to do it in a strong voice." And you have to do it in a strong voice," she wrote in 2015. It was a doomed mission, but it also was a testament to the human spirit to stand up against oppression, even when it will likely mean your death. It wasn't to be. And to so many, Albright was a feminist icon. To others, Albright's decades of public service proved a model for a person choosing to serve their country.

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