Madeleine Albright: former secretary of state

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Korbel Albright was nominated by President Clinton on December 5, 1996, as Secretary of State. After being unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, she was sworn in as the 64th Secretary of State on January 23, 1997. Albright was the first female secretary of state and the highest ranking woman in the U.S. government.

A professor and foreign policy expert, Albright is widely regarded as a prominent Washington insider with strong political connections.

Prior to her appointment, Albright served as the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations (the second woman to do so) and as a member of President Clinton's Cabinet and National Security Council. Based clearly on the stength of her personal views and familiarity with world politics, Albright immediately became a presence to be reckoned with.

Albright formerly was the president of the Center for National Policy, a non-profit research organization formed in 1981 by representatives from government, industry, labor and education. Its mandate is to promote the study and discussion of domestic and international issues.

As a research professor of international affairs and director of Women in Foreign Service Program at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, she taught undergraduate and graduate courses in international affairs, U.S. foreign policy, Russian foreign policy, and Central and Eastern European politics, and was responsible for developing and implementing programs designed to enhance women's professional opportunities in international affairs.

From 1981 to 1982, Albright was awarded a fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian following an international competition in which she wrote about the role of the press in political changes in Poland during the early 1980's.

She also served as a Senior Fellow in Soviet and Eastern European Affairs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, conducting research in developments and trends in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

From 1978-1981, Albright was a staff member on the National Security Council, as well as a White House staff member, where she was responsible for foreign policy legislation.

From 1976-1978, she served as chief legislative assistant to Senator Edmund S. Muskie.

Awarded a bachelor's degree from Wellesley College with honors in political science, she studied at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, received a Certificate from the Russian Institute at Columbia University, and her masters and doctorate from Columbia University's department of public law and government.

Albright is fluent in French and Czech, with good speaking and reading abilities in Russian and Polish.

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).

Information for this biography was provided by the State Department and TGC Communications.

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