Diplomatic Personnel

A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and friendly relations.

Diplomats are the oldest form of any of the foreign policy institutions of the state, predating by centuries foreign ministers and ministerial offices.

Etymology[link]

The word is derived from the Greek διπλωμάτης, diplōmátēs, the holder of a diploma (a folded paper, literally a "folding"), referring in this case not to an educational certificate but to a diplomat's letters of accreditation, which enable him or her to carry out duties on behalf of one country or institution within the jurisdiction of another country or institution.

Terminology[link]

The ranks of diplomats— ambassador, envoys, ministers, and chargé d’affaires — are determined by international law, namely the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961.

Diplomats can be contrasted with consuls, attachés, who represent their state in a number of administrative ways, but who don’t have the diplomat’s political functions.

Function[link]

Diplomats in posts collect and report information that could affect national interests, often with advice about how the home country government should respond. Then, once any policy response has been decided in the home country's capital, posts bear major responsibility for implementing it. Diplomats have the job of conveying, in the most persuasive way possible, the views of the home government to the governments to which they are accredited and, in doing so, to try to convince those governments to act in ways that suit home country interests. In this way, diplomats are part of the beginning and the end of each loop in the continuous process through which foreign policy is made.

In general, it has become harder for diplomats to act autonomously. Whereas in the past Thomas Jefferson could write to his Secretary of State, "We have not heard from our Ambassador in Spain for two years. If we do not hear from him this year, let us write him a letter",^[1] secure communication systems, emails and mobile telephones can track down and instruct the most reclusive head of mission. The same technology in reverse gives diplomats the capacity for more immediate input about the policy-making processes in the home capital.

Secure email has transformed the contact between diplomats and the ministry. It is less likely to be leaked, and enables more personal contact than the formal cablegram, with its wide distribution and impersonal style.

Reporting[link]

Advocacy[link]

The home country will usually send instructions to a diplomatic post on what foreign policy goals to pursue, but decisions on tactics - who needs to be influenced, what will best persuade them, who are potential allies and adversaries, and how it can be done - are for the diplomats overseas to make.

In this operation, the intelligence, integrity, cultural understanding and energy of individual diplomats are critical. If they are any good at their jobs, they will have developed relationships grounded in trust and mutual understanding with influential members of the country in which they are accredited. They will have worked hard to understand the motives, thought patterns and culture of the other side.

Negotiation[link]

The diplomat should be an excellent negotiator but, above all, a catalyst for peace and understanding between peoples. The role is the principal element in the peaceful relations between states because its scope ends when the fighting starts war and could, at best, act simultaneously.

Training[link]

Most diplomats have university degrees in international relations, political science, economics, or law.^[2]

Status and public image[link]

Diplomats have generally been considered members of an exclusive and prestigious profession. The public image of diplomats has been described as "a caricature of pinstriped men gliding their way around a never-ending global cocktail party"^[3] J. W. Burton has noted that "despite the absence of any specific professional training, diplomacy has a high professional status, due perhaps to a degree of secrecy and mystery that its practitioners self-consciously promote."^[4] The state supports the high status, privileges and self-esteem of its diplomats in order to support its own international status and position.

The high regard for diplomats is also due to most countries' conspicuous selection of diplomats, with regard to their professionality and ability to behave according to a certain etiquette, in order to effectively promote their interests. Also, international law grants diplomats extensive privileges and immunities, which further distinguished the diplomat from the status of an ordinary citizen.

Psychology[link]

While posted overseas, there is a danger that diplomats may become disconnected from their own country and culture. Sir Harold Nicolson acknowledged that diplomats can become "denationalised, internationalised and therefore dehydrated, an elegant empty husk".^[5]

Uniform[link]

From about 1800 to after the Second World War, diplomats from most countries wore official uniforms at public occasions. Such uniforms are now retained by only a few diplomatic services, and are seldom worn.

References[link]

Carne Ross in February 2012

Carne Ross is the founder and director of Independent Diplomat, a diplomatic advisory group. Born in 1966, Ross has a fraternal twin, Oliver Ross, a successful paediatric anaesthetist in UK. Carne Ross taught in Zimbabwe before attending the University of Exeter where he studied economics and politics. He joined the British foreign service in 1989. Ross's testimony in the Butler Review directly contradicted the British position on the justification behind the invasion of Iraq.

Career[link]

Ross joined the British Foreign Office and worked at the UK embassy in Bonn, Germany before moving to the UK mission to the UN, where he worked from December 1997 to June 2002.

At the UN, Ross served as the UK delegation's expert on the Middle East. Ross also worked on several important Security Council resolutions such as SCR 1284 which rewrote the Council's Iraq policy and established UNMOVIC, the weapons inspection body. He also negotiated for the UK the resolution establishing the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan and the Council's resolution of 12 September 2001 condemning the attacks of the day before.

Ross then served as Strategy Coordinator for the UN in Kosovo (UNMIK) where he devised and led a joint UN and government policy to implement a series of standards to improve governance, the rule of law and human rights protection, and advised the Secretary-General's Special Representative on diplomatic and political tactics.

He left the British civil service in 2004 after 15 years of service. He is now a supporter of a UN Parliamentary Assembly.^[1] In 2004, he founded the non-governmental organisation Independent Diplomat.

Testimony on the UK's role in the invasion of Iraq[link]

Ross testified during the Butler Review, which investigated intelligence blunders in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. He testified that at no time during his work on Iraq (1998-2002) did the UK or US assess that Iraq's WMD posed a threat. He also argued that available alternatives to war, namely targeting Iraq's illegal oil revenues, were ignored. This testimony directly challenged Blair's assertions that the war was legally justified by Saddam Hussein's possession of weapons of mass destruction which posed a threat to British interests. The testimony was published by the Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs after MPs sought assurances from the Foreign Office that it would not breach the Official Secrets Act.

Publications and artistic endeavours[link]

Ross published a book called Independent Diplomat: Dispatches from an Unaccountable Elite in 2007^[2] and a book called The Leaderless Revolution in 2011.^[3] He wrote a play called The Fox,^[4] which enjoyed a short run in New York in early 2001. He also appeared as an extra in an Alan Partridge Christmas Special.

Private Life[link]

Ross is the grandson of Alan S.C. Ross.

References[link]

1. ^ Comment is free: The road from Rome
2. ^ Carne Ross (2007). Independent Diplomat: Dispatches from an Unaccountable Elite. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-4557-6. 
3. ^ Carne Ross (2012). The Leaderless Revolution: How Ordinary People Will Take Power and Change Politics in the Twenty-First Century. Blue Rider Press. ISBN 978-0-399-15872-8. 
4. ^ Elyse Sommer (2001). "The Fox" (Review). Curtain Up. http://www.curtainup.com/fox.html. Retrieved May 8, 2012. 

External links[link]

• Independent Diplomat
• UK Publisher: Hurst & Co
• US Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Stephen Moss, "Diplomat at large", The Guardian, 20 June 2005[1]
• Colin Brown and Andy McSmith, "Diplomat's suppressed document lays bare the lies behind Iraq war", The Independent, 15 December 2006[2]
• TEDTalk: Carne Ross, independent diplomat
• Carne Ross on Bill Moyers
• In Conversation: The “Leaderless Revolution” Carne Ross with Nikolas Kozloff, The Brooklyn Rail

Madeleine Albright
64th United States Secretary of State
In office January 23, 1997 – January 20, 2001
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Warren Christopher
Succeeded by	Colin Powell
20th United States Ambassador to the United Nations
In office January 27, 1993 – January 21, 1997
President	Bill Clinton
Secretary-General	Boutros Boutros-Ghali Kofi Annan
Preceded by	Edward J. Perkins
Succeeded by	Bill Richardson
Personal details
Born	Marie Jana Korbelová (1937-05-15) May 15, 1937 (age 75) Prague, Czechoslovakia[1]
Nationality	Czech, American
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Joseph Medill Patterson Albright (1959–1982; divorced)
Children	3 daughters – twins Anne and Alice, and Katherine (Katie)
Alma mater	Wellesley College (B.A.) Columbia University (M.A., Ph.D.)
Profession	Diplomat
Religion	Episcopalian Christian[2]
Signature

Madeleine Korbelová Albright (born May 15, 1937) was the first woman to become the United States Secretary of State. She was appointed by US President Bill Clinton on December 5, 1996, and was unanimously confirmed by a U.S. Senate vote of 99–0. She was sworn in on January 23, 1997.

Albright currently serves as a Professor of International Relations at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service. She holds a PhD from Columbia University. She holds honorary degrees from Brandeis University (1996); the University of Washington (2002); Smith College (2003); University of Winnipeg (2005); the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2007), and Knox College (2008).^[3] In May 2012, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by US President Barack Obama.^[4] Secretary Albright also serves as a Director on the Board of the Council on Foreign Relations.^[5]

Albright is fluent in English, French, Russian, and Czech; she speaks and reads Polish and Serbo-Croatian as well.^[6]

Personal[link]

Early life[link]

Albright was born Marie Jana Korbelová (Czech pronunciation: [ˈmarɪjɛ ˈjana ˈkorbɛlovaː]) in the Smíchov district of Prague, Czechoslovakia. At the time of her birth, Czechoslovakia had been independent for less than twenty years, having gained independence from Austria after World War I. Her father, Josef Korbel, was a Czech Jewish diplomat and supporter of the early Czech democrats, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and Edvard Beneš.^[7] She was his first child with his Jewish wife, Anna (née Spieglová), who later also had another daughter Katherine (a schoolteacher) and son John (an economist).

At the time of Albright’s birth, her father was serving as press-attaché at the Czechoslovak Embassy in Belgrade. However, the signing of the Munich Agreement in March 1938 and the disintegration of Czechoslovakia at the hands of Adolf Hitler forced the family into exile because of their links with Beneš.^[8] Prior to their flight, Albright's parents had converted from Judaism to Roman Catholicism.^[9] Albright spent the war years in England, while her father worked for Beneš’s Czechoslovak government-in-exile. They first lived on Kensington Park Road in Notting Hill, London, where they endured the worst of The Blitz, but later moved to Beaconsfield, then Walton-on-Thames, on the outskirts of London.^[10] While in England, a young Albright appeared as a refugee child in a film designed to promote sympathy for all war refugees in London.^[11]

Albright was raised Catholic, but converted to Episcopalianism at the time of her marriage in 1959. Albright did not learn until late in life that her parents were Jewish and that many of her Jewish relatives in Czechoslovakia had perished in The Holocaust, including three of her grandparents.^[12][13]

After the defeat of the Nazis in the European Theatre of World War II and the collapse of Nazi Germany and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Albright and family moved back to Prague, where they were given a luxurious apartment in the Hradcany district (which later caused controversy, as it had belonged to an ethnic German Bohemian industrialist family forced out by the Beneš decrees – see "Controversies"). Korbel was named Czechoslovak Ambassador to communist Yugoslavia, and the family moved to Belgrade. Communists governed Yugoslavia, and Korbel was concerned his daughter would be indoctrinated with Marxist ideology in a Yugoslav school, so she was taught by a governess and later sent to the Prealpina Institut pour Jeunes Filles in Chexbres, on Lake Geneva in Switzerland.^[14] Here, she learned French and went by Madeleine, the French version of Madlenka, her Czech nickname.^[15]

However, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia took over the government in 1948, with support from the Soviet Union, and as an opponent of Communism, Korbel was forced to resign from his position.^[16] He later obtained a position on a United Nations delegation to Kashmir, and sent his family to the United States, by way of London, to wait for him when he arrived to deliver his report to the U.N. Headquarters, then in Lake Success, New York.^[16] The family arrived in New York City, New York, in November 1948, and initially settled in Great Neck, on Long Island, New York.^[17] Korbel applied for political asylum, arguing that as an opponent of Communism, he was now under threat in Prague.^[18] With the help of Philip Mosely, a professor of Russian at Columbia University in New York City, Korbel obtained a position on the staff of the political science department at the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado.^[19] He became dean of the university’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies, and later taught future U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.^[7]

Life in the United States[link]

Albright spent her teen years in Denver, and graduated from the Kent Denver School in Cherry Hills Village, a suburb of Denver, in 1955, where she founded the school’s international relations club and was its first president.^[20] She attended Wellesley College, in Wellesley, Massachusetts, on a full scholarship, majoring in political science and graduated in 1959.^[21] Her senior thesis was written on Czech Communist Zdeněk Fierlinger.^[22] She became a U.S. citizen in 1957, and joined the College Democrats of America.^[23]

While home in Denver from Wellesley, Albright worked as an intern for The Denver Post, where she met Joseph Medill Patterson Albright, the nephew of Alicia Patterson, owner of Newsday and wife of philanthropist Harry Frank Guggenheim.^[24] The couple were married in Wellesley in 1959, shortly after her graduation.^[21] They lived first in Rolla, Missouri, while he served his military service at nearby Fort Leonard Wood.^[25] During this time, she worked at the Rolla Daily News.^[25]

In January 1960 the couple moved to his hometown of Chicago, Illinois, where he worked at the Chicago Sun-Times as a journalist, and Albright worked as a picture editor for Encyclopædia Britannica.^[26] The following year, Joseph Albright began work at Newsday in New York City, and the couple moved to Garden City on Long Island.^[27] That year, she gave birth to twin daughters, Alice Patterson Albright and Anne Korbel Albright. The twins were born six weeks premature, and required a long hospital stay, so as a distraction, Albright began Russian classes at Hofstra University in Village of Hempstead, New York.^[27]

In 1962, the family moved to Georgetown in Washington, D.C., and Albright began studying international relations and continued studying Russian at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington DC.^[28] However, in 1963 Alicia Patterson died, and the family returned to Long Island with the notion of Joseph taking over the family business.^[29] Albright gave birth to another daughter, Katherine Medill Albright, in 1967, and continued her studies at Columbia University's Department of Public Law and Government^[30] (later renamed as the political science department, which is located within the School of International and Public Affairs). She earned a certificate in Russian, a Masters of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy, writing her Master's thesis on the Soviet diplomatic corps, and her doctoral dissertation on the role of journalists in the Prague Spring of 1968.^[31] She also took a graduate course given by Zbigniew Brzezinski, who would later be her boss at the U.S. National Security Council.^[32]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

Albright returned to Washington in 1968, and commuted to Columbia for her PhD, which she received in 1975.^[33] She began fund-raising for her daughters' school, involvement which led to several positions on education boards.^[34] She was eventually invited to organize a fund-raising dinner for the 1972 presidential campaign of U.S. Senator Ed Muskie of Maine.^[35] This association with Muskie led to a position as his chief legislative assistant in 1976.^[36] However, after the 1976 U.S. presidential election of Jimmy Carter, Albright's former professor Brzezinski was named National Security Advisor, and recruited Albright from Muskie in 1978 to work in the West Wing as the National Security Council’s congressional liaison.^[36] Following Carter's loss in 1980 to Ronald Reagan, Albright moved on to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where she was given a grant for a research project.^[37] She chose to write on the dissident journalists involved in Poland's Solidarity movement, then in its infancy but gaining international attention.^[37] She traveled to Poland for her research, interviewing dissidents in Gdansk, Warsaw and Krakow.^[38] Upon her return to Washington, her husband announced his intention to divorce her for another woman.^[39]

Albright joined the academic staff at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., in 1982, specializing in Eastern European studies.^[40] She has also directed the University's program on women in global politics.^[41] She has also served as a major Democratic Party foreign policy advisor, and briefed Vice-Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis in 1988 (both campaigns ended in defeat).^[42] In 1992, Bill Clinton returned the White House to the Democratic Party, and Albright was employed to handle the transition to a new administration at the National Security Council.^[43] In January 1993, Clinton nominated her to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, her first diplomatic posting.^[44]

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations[link]

Albright was appointed Ambassador to the United Nations, her first diplomatic post, shortly after Clinton was inaugurated, presenting her credentials on February 9, 1993. During her tenure at the U.N., she had a rocky relationship with the U.N. Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, whom she criticized as "disengaged" and "neglect[ful]" of genocide in Rwanda.^[45] Albright wrote:

My deepest regret from my years in public service is the failure of the United States and the international community to act sooner to halt these crimes.^[46]

In Shake Hands with the Devil, Roméo Dallaire claims that in 1994, in Albright's role as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the U.N., she avoided describing the killings in Rwanda as "genocide" until overwhelmed by the evidence for it;^[47] this is now how she describes these massacres in her memoirs.^[45][48] She was instructed to support a reduction or withdrawal (something which never happened) of the U.N. Assistance Mission for Rwanda but was later given more flexibility.^[48] Albright later remarked in PBS documentary Ghosts of Rwanda that

it was a very, very difficult time, and the situation was unclear. You know, in retrospect, it all looks very clear. But when you were [there] at the time, it was unclear about what was happening in Rwanda."^[49]

Also in 1996, after Cuban military pilots shot down two small civilian aircraft flown by the Cuban-American exile group Brothers to the Rescue over international waters, she announced, "This is not cojones. This is cowardice."^[50] The line endeared her to President Clinton, who said it was "probably the most effective one-liner in the whole administration's foreign policy."^[51]

On May 12, 1996, Albright defended UN sanctions against Iraq on a 60 Minutes segment in which Lesley Stahl asked her "We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?" and Albright replied "we think the price is worth it."^[52] Albright later criticized Stahl's segment as "amount[ing] to Iraqi propaganda"; said that her question was a loaded question;^[53][54] wrote "I had fallen into a trap and said something I did not mean";^[55] and regretted coming "across as cold-blooded and cruel".^[52] Sanctions critics took Albright's failure to reframe the question as confirmation of the statistic.^[55][56][57] The segment won an Emmy Award.^[58][59]

Secretary of State[link]

When Albright took office as the 64th U.S. Secretary of State on January 23, 1997, she became the first female U.S. Secretary of State and the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government.^[60] Not being a natural-born citizen of the U.S., she was not eligible as a U.S. Presidential successor and was excluded from nuclear contingency plans. In her position as Secretary of State, Albright reinforced the U.S.'s alliances; advocated democracy and human rights; and promoted American trade and business, labor and environmental standards abroad.

During her tenure, Albright considerably influenced American policy in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Middle East. She incurred the wrath of a number of Serbs in the former Yugoslavia for her role in participating in the formulation of US policy during the Kosovo War and Bosnian war as well as the rest of the Balkans. But, together with President Bill Clinton, she remains a largely popular figure in the rest of the region, especially Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Croatia. According to Albright's memoirs, she once argued with Colin Powell for the use of military force by asking, "What’s the point of you saving this superb military for, Colin, if we can't use it?"^[61]

As Secretary of State she represented the U.S. at the Transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong on July 1, 1997. She boycotted the swearing-in ceremony of the China-appointed Hong Kong Legislative Council, which replaced the elected one, along with the British contingents.^[62]

Albright with Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and Yasser Arafat at the Wye River Memorandum, 1998.

According to several accounts, U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Prudence Bushnell repeatedly asked Washington for additional security at the embassy in Nairobi, including in an April 1998 letter directly to Albright. Bushnell was ignored.^[63] In "Against All Enemies," Richard Clarke writes about an exchange with Albright several months after the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed in August 1998. "What do you think will happen if you lose another embassy?" Clarke asked. "The Republicans in Congress will go after you." "First of all, I didn't lose these two embassies," Albright shot back. "I inherited them in the shape they were." Albright was booed in 1998 when the brief war threat with Iraq revealed that citizens were opposed to such an invasion, although this is often overlooked.

In 1998, at the NATO summit, Albright articulated what would become known as the "three Ds" of NATO, "which is no diminution of NATO, no discrimination and no duplication – because I think that we don't need any of those three "Ds" to happen."^[64]

With NATO officers during NATO Ceremony of Accession of New Members, 1999.

Both Bill Clinton and Albright insisted that an attack on Hussein could be stopped only if Hussein reversed his decision to halt arms inspections. "Iraq has a simple choice. Reverse course or face the consequences," Albright said.^[65]

In 2000, Albright became one of the highest level Western diplomats ever to meet Kim Jong-il, the communist leader of North Korea, during an official state visit to that country.^[66]

In one of her last acts as Secretary of State, Albright on January 8, 2001, paid a farewell call on Kofi Annan and said that the U.S. would continue to press Iraq to destroy all its weapons of mass destruction as a condition of lifting economic sanctions, even after the end of the Clinton administration on January 20, 2001.^[67]

Post-2001 career[link]

Madeleine Albright at World Economic Forum.

Following Albright's term as Secretary of State, many speculated that she might pursue a career in Czech politics. Czech President Václav Havel talked openly about the possibility of Albright succeeding him after he retired in 2002. Albright was reportedly flattered by suggestions that she should run for office, but denied ever seriously considering it.^[68] She was the second recipient of the Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award presented by the Prague Society for International Cooperation.

In 2001, Albright was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[69] The same year, she founded the Albright Group, an international strategy consulting firm based in Washington, D.C.^[70] It has Coca-Cola, Merck, Dubai Ports World, and Marsh & McLennan Companies among its clients, who benefit from the access that Albright has through her global contacts.^[71][72] Affiliated with the firm is Albright Capital Management, which was founded in 2005 to engage in private fund management related to emerging markets.^[72]

Albright currently serves on the Council on Foreign Relations Board of directors and on the International Advisory Committee of the Brookings Doha Center.^[73] She is also currently the Mortara Distinguished Professor of Diplomacy at the Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C..

In 2003, she accepted a position on the Board of Directors of the New York Stock Exchange. In 2005, Albright declined to run for re-election to the board in the aftermath of the Richard Grasso compensation scandal, in which Grasso, the chairman of the NYSE Board of Directors, had been granted $187.5 million in compensation, with little governance by the board on which Albright sat. During the tenure of the interim chairman, John S. Reed, Albright served as chairwoman of the NYSE board's nominating and governance committee. Shortly after the appointment of the NYSE board's permanent chairman in 2005, Albright submitted her resignation.^[74]

On October 25, 2005, Albright guest starred on the television drama Gilmore Girls as herself.^[75]

On January 5, 2006, she participated in a meeting at the White House of former Secretaries of Defense and State to discuss U.S. foreign policy with George W. Bush administration officials. On May 5, 2006, she was again invited to the White House to meet with former Secretaries and Bush administration officials to discuss Iraq.

Albright currently^{[clarification needed]} serves as chairperson of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and as president of the Truman Scholarship Foundation. She is also the co-chair of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor and held the Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders Women's Ministerial Initiative up until November 16, 2007, succeeded by Margot Wallström.

In an interview given to Newsweek International published July 24, 2006, Albright gave her opinion on current U.S. foreign policy. Albright said: "I hope I'm wrong, but I'm afraid that Iraq is going to turn out to be the greatest disaster in American foreign policy – worse than Vietnam."^[76]

In September 2006, she received the Menschen in Europa Award, with Václav Havel, for furthering the cause of international understanding.^[77]

Albright has mentioned her physical fitness and exercise regimen in several interviews. She has said she is capable of leg pressing 400 pounds.^[78][79]

At the National Press Club in Washington on November 13, 2007, Albright declared that she with William Cohen would co-chair a new "Genocide Prevention Task Force"^[80] created by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the American Academy of Diplomacy, and the United States Institute for Peace. Their appointment was criticized by Harut Sassounian^[81] and the Armenian National Committee of America.^[82]

On May 13, 2007, two days before her 70th birthday, Albright received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.^[83]

Albright speaks during the third night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.

Albright endorsed and supported Hillary Clinton in her 2008 campaign for U.S. President. Albright has been a close friend of Clinton and serves as her top informal advisor on foreign policy matters. She is currently^{[clarification needed]} serving as a top advisor for U.S. President Barack Obama in a working group on national security. On December 1, 2008, then-President-elect Obama nominated then-Senator Clinton for Albright's former post of Secretary of State.

In September 2009, Albright opened an exhibition of her personal jewelry collection at the Museum of Art and Design in New York City, which ran until January 2010. The collection highlighted the many pins she wore while serving at the United Nations and State Department, including the famous pin showing a snake and apple she wore after the Iraqi press called her "an unparalleled serpent", and several jeweled insect bugs she wore to meet the Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov after it was discovered the Russian secret service had attempted to bug the State Department.^[84]

World Justice Project[link]

Madeleine Albright serves as an Honorary Chair for the World Justice Project.^[85] The World Justice Project works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the Rule of Law for the development of communities of opportunity and equity.^[86]

The Hague Institute for Global Justice[link]

Madeleine Albright serves as Chair of the advisory council for The Hague Institute for Global Justice, which was founded in 2011 in The Hague.^[87]

Controversies[link]

Art ownership controversy[link]

Following the Washington Post's profile of Albright by Michael Dobbs, an Austrian man, Philipp Harmer, launched legal action against Albright, claiming Josef Korbel had illegally taken possession of artwork which belonged to his great-grandfather, Karl Nebrich.^[88] Nebrich, a German-speaking Prague industrialist, was forced to abandon some of his possessions when ethnic Germans were expelled from the country after WWII under the Beneš decrees. His apartment, at 11 Hradčanská Street in Prague, was subsequently given to Korbel and his family, which they occupied before also being forced to flee to America. Harmer felt Korbel stole his great-grandfather's artwork, which was left in the apartment. The matter was handled by Albright's brother, John Korbel.^[88]

Radovan Karadžić[link]

During his first hearing in front of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Radovan Karadžić stated that Albright^[89] along with Richard Holbrooke offered him a deal which would allow him avoid prosecution for asserted war crimes if he left public life and politics. According to Karadžić, Albright offered him a chance to relocate to Russia, Greece, or Serbia and open a private clinic, or to go to Bijeljina.^[90] Karadžić was quoted as saying that Holbrooke or Albright would like to see him disappear and expressed the fear for his life by saying "I do not know how long the arm of Mr Holbrooke or Mrs Albright is ... or whether that arm can reach me here".^[91]

Books[link]

• Madam Secretary (2003) – Albright's memoir, published after her retirement
• The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs (2006)
• Memo to the President Elect: How We Can Restore America's Reputation and Leadership (2008)
• Read My Pins (2009)^[92]
• Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948 (2012)^[93]

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

Primary Sources[link]

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (January 2011)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Madeleine Albright

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Madeleine Albright

• Madam Secretary The Madeleine Albright Memoir
• Portrait of Madeleine Albright – Madeleine Albright interviewed by Ulysse Gosset on France 24 – The Talk of Paris Show
• Official biography at State Department site
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Sample chapter and audio interview about The Mighty and the Almighty (Official publisher web page)
• 1997 commencement speech, Mount Holyoke College
• 2003 commencement speech, Smith College
• 2007 commencement speech, Wellesley College
• Address at DePauw University, September 19, 2008 (with video clips)
• Chapter excerpts and audio interview about foreign policy (Official publisher web page)
• Madeleine Albright Co-Chair Genocide Prevention Task Force
• Audio recording of Albright's talk, "The Mighty and the Almighty," as part of the University of Chicago World Beyond the Headlines series.
• Estimates of Iraqi deaths during sanctions

v t e State Secretaries of the United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs 1781–1789 R. Livingston Jay Secretary of State 1789–present Jefferson Randolph Pickering J. Marshall Madison Smith Monroe Adams Clay Van Buren E. Livingston McLane Forsyth Webster Upshur Calhoun Buchanan Clayton Webster Everett Marcy Cass Black Seward Washburne Fish Evarts Blaine Frelinghuysen Bayard Blaine Foster Gresham Olney Sherman Day Hay Root Bacon Knox Bryan Lansing Colby Hughes Kellogg Stimson Hull Stettinius Byrnes G Marshall Acheson Dulles Herter Rusk Rogers Kissinger Vance Muskie Haig Shultz Baker Eagleburger Christopher Albright Powell Rice Clinton

v t e United States Ambassadors to the United Nations Stettinius Austin Lodge Wadsworth Stevenson Goldberg Ball Wiggins Yost Bush Scali Moynihan Scranton Young McHenry Kirkpatrick Walters Pickering Perkins Albright Richardson Holbrooke Negroponte Danforth Bolton Khalilzad Rice

v t e Cabinet of President Bill Clinton (1993–2001)   Cabinet Secretary of State Warren Christopher (1993 – 1997) Madeleine Albright (1997 – 2001) Secretary of the Treasury Lloyd Bentsen (1993 – 1994) Robert Rubin (1995 – 1999) Lawrence Summers (1999 – 2001) Secretary of Defense Les Aspin (1993 – 1994) William Perry (1994 – 1997) William Cohen (1997 – 2001) Attorney General Janet Reno (1993 – 2001) Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt (1993 – 2001) Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy (1993 – 1994) Dan Glickman (1995 – 2001) Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown (1993 – 1996) Mickey Kantor (1996 – 1997) William Daley (1997 – 2000) Norman Mineta (2000 – 2001) Secretary of Labor Robert Reich (1993 – 1997) Alexis Herman (1997 – 2001) Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala (1993 – 2001) Secretary of Education Richard Riley (1993 – 2001) Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros (1993 – 1997) Andrew Cuomo (1997 – 2001) Secretary of Transportation Federico Peña (1993 – 1997) Rodney Slater (1997 – 2001) Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary (1993 – 1997) Federico Peña (1997 – 1998) Bill Richardson (1998 – 2001) Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jesse Brown (1993 – 1997) Togo West (1998 – 2000) Hershel Gober* (2000 – 2001) acting secretary.   Cabinet-level Vice President Al Gore (1993 – 2001) White House Chief of Staff Mack McLarty (1993 – 1994) Leon Panetta (1994 – 1997) Erskine Bowles (1997 – 1998) John Podesta (1998 – 2001) Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Carol Browner (1993 – 2001) Ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Korbel Albright (1993 – 1997) Bill Richardson (1997 – 1998) Richard Holbrooke (1999 – 2001) Director of the Office of Management and Budget Leon Panetta (1993 – 1994) Alice Rivlin (1994 – 1996) Franklin Raines (1996 – 1998) Jacob Lew (1998 – 2001) Director of National Drug Control Policy Lee Brown (1993 – 1995) Barry McCaffrey (1996 – 2001) Trade Representative Mickey Kantor (1993 – 1997) Charlene Barshefsky (1997 – 2001) Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency James Lee Witt (1993 – 2001)* Director of Central Intelligence John Deutch (1995 – 1996) George Tenet (1997–2001) Administrator of the Small Business Administration Erskine Bowles (1993 - 1994) Philip Lader (1994 – 1997) Aída Álvarez (1997–2001) took office in 1993, raised to cabinet-rank in 1996

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Pig Destroyer
Background information
Origin	Richmond, Virginia, United States
Genres	Grindcore,[1] death metal,[2] deathgrind[3]
Years active	1997–present
Labels	Relapse
Website	http://www.myspace.com/therealpigdestroyer
Members
J. R. Hayes Scott Hull Blake Harrison Adam Jarvis
Past members
John Evans Donna Parker Jessica Rylan Brian Harvey

Pig Destroyer is a grindcore band from Virginia, USA.

Biography[link]

The band formed in 1997 with vocalist J. R. Hayes (Enemy Soil), guitarist Scott Hull (Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Japanese Torture Comedy Hour, ex-Anal Cunt), and drummer John Evans. Evans was later replaced by Brian Harvey. Sampler Blake Harrison joined prior to recording Phantom Limb.^[4]

In an interview, Scott Hull claims that they picked the band name on the criteria that it was insulting, yet somewhat more creative than the name of his last band, Anal Cunt. Deciding that "Cop Killer" or "Cop Destroyer" would be tactless, they eventually settled on "Pig Destroyer" ("pig" being a pejorative American slang term for the police). Derived from a non-musical source as extreme as the band's sound, Pig Destroyer's easily identifiable logo was created using the emblem from ANSWER Me! magazine as a template. However, the band has become less political in recent times.

Relapse Records signed the band and issued a split 7" with Isis on the label's Singles Series in July 2000. 38 Counts of Battery was a complete discography of Pig Destroyer releases up to the year 2000, which included split records with Gnob and influential screamo act Orchid, as well as their debut album, Explosions In Ward 6, and the demo that secured their record deal.

Prowler in the Yard, released in 2001, was the first of the band's records to really break through to what could contextually be considered the "mainstream." Garnering rave reviews from popular press such as Kerrang! and Terrorizer, the record earned Pig Destroyer headlining slots at the 2002 New England Metal and Hardcore Festival and the 2002 Relapse Records CMJ Showcase, as well as a high placing at 2003's Relapse Contamination Fest alongside scene legends High on Fire and The Dillinger Escape Plan (documented on the Relapse Contamination Fest DVD).

2004's Terrifyer boasted a much clearer sound than Prowler in the Yard or 38 Counts of Battery, as well as lyrics and prose from Hayes. The record came with an accompanying DVD soundscape entitled "Natasha", which was intended to be listened to in surround sound (although a more recent Japanese edition of the album has "Natasha" as an ordinary CD with four bonus tracks). Session guitarist Matthew Kevin Mills, Hull's former guitar teacher, recorded the lead guitar parts in the song "Towering Flesh".

A compilation of tracks from the split EPs with Gnob and Benümb is also available, entitled Painter of Dead Girls. The album features alternative versions of older songs from the 38 Counts era (such as "Dark Satellites"), a series of new songs (such as "Rejection Fetish" and "Forgotten Child"), and covers of bands who could be considered an influence (such as The Stooges and Helmet).

Pig Destroyer have stated that they would release a series of 9 split 7" EPs in 2006. Bands on the flipside include Orthrelm and Blood Duster; however, nothing has yet been released. The 7" series has been put on hold for the release of Phantom Limb.^[5]

2007 saw the release of album Phantom Limb via Relapse Records, complete with album artwork designed by John Baizley (Baroness, Torche).

At least three official promotional videos have been made of Pig Destroyer songs: "Piss Angel", from Prowler in the Yard, "Gravedancer", from Terrifyer, and "Loathsome", from Phantom Limb. All three have aired on MTV2's Headbangers Ball, with each video seeing more airplay than the one that was released before it.^[6] The video for "Piss Angel" debuted on the show on Aug. 14, 2004, and was directed by Kenneth Thibault and Nathaniel Baruch.^[7] The video for "Gravedancer" was directed by Vladimir Lik and released in 2007. The video for "Loathsome" was directed by David Brodsky and debuted in late 2007.

In 2011, Harvey was replaced by Misery Index drummer Adam Jarvis.^[8]

In September 2011, a low quality YouTube video surfaced of Pig Destroyer playing three new songs in Seattle, Washington. This adds speculation that the band are working on a new album due out in 2012.^[9]

Pig Destroyer will headline the Terrorizer stage at the Damnation Festival in Leeds in November 2012, marking their first United Kingdom show in eight years.^[10]

Influences[link]

Scott Hull has mentioned artist Matthew Barney, author Dennis Cooper, and noise musicians Whitehouse as influencing his music.^[11] Pig Destroyer is inspired by thrash metal, such as Dark Angel and Slayer, the sludge metal of The Melvins, and American grindcore as practiced by Brutal Truth.^[12]

Members[link]

Current members

• J. R. Hayes (Enemy Soil) – vocals
• Scott Hull (Agoraphobic Nosebleed, ex-Anal Cunt, ex-Japanese Torture Comedy Hour) – guitar
• Adam Jarvis (Misery Index) – drums
• Blake Harrison (Hatebeak) – electronics

Former members

• John Evans – drums (1997–2001)
• Donna Parker – electronics (2006)
• Jessica Rylan – keyboard (2006)
• Brian Harvey – drums (2001–2011)

Discography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Pig Destroyer at Relapse Records
• Pig Destroyer on Myspace
• Live Photos of Pig Destroyer at Blackened Music Series Event 2009

Lil Wayne
Lil Wayne in 2006
Background information
Birth name	Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr.
Born	(1982-09-27) September 27, 1982 (age 29)
Origin	New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Genres	Hip hop
Occupations	Rapper, songwriter
Years active	1992–present
Labels	Cash Money, Young Money,Universal Republic
Associated acts	Birdman, Drake, Cash Money Millionaires, Hot Boys, Young Money, The B.G.'z, Nicki Minaj, Juelz Santana[1]
Website	lilwayne-online.com

Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. (born September 27, 1982), better known by his stage name Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. At the age of nine, Lil Wayne joined Cash Money Records as the youngest member of the label, and half of the duo, The B.G.'z, with B.G.. In 1997, Lil Wayne joined the group Hot Boys, which also included rappers Juvenile, B.G., and Young Turk. Hot Boys debuted with Get It How U Live! that year. Lil Wayne gained most of his success with the group's major selling album Guerrilla Warfare, released in 1999. Also in 1999, Lil Wayne released his Platinum debut album Tha Block Is Hot, selling over one million copies in the U.S.

Although his next two albums Lights Out (2000) and 500 Degreez (2002) were not as successful (only reaching Gold status), Lil Wayne reached higher popularity in 2004 with Tha Carter, which included the single "Go D.J." Wayne also appeared on the Destiny's Child top ten single "Soldier" that year. In 2005, the sequel to Tha Carter, Tha Carter II, was released. In 2006 and 2007, Lil Wayne released several mixtapes and appeared on several popular rap and R&B singles. His most successful album, Tha Carter III, was released in 2008 and sold over 1 million copies in the U.S. its first week of release. It included the number-one single "Lollipop" featuring Static Major. It also includes the singles "A Milli" and "Got Money" featuring T-Pain and won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album.

Lil Wayne released his debut rock album, Rebirth, in 2010 to primarily negative reception from critics. The album eventually went gold. In March 2010, Lil Wayne began serving an 8-month prison sentence in New York after being convicted of criminal possession of a weapon stemming from an incident in July 2007. While in prison he released another album entitled I Am Not a Human Being in September 2010, featuring Young Money artists such as Drake, Nicki Minaj and Lil Twist. His ninth studio album and first since being released from prison, Tha Carter IV, was released on August 29, 2011.^[2] The album includes the songs "6 Foot 7 Foot" featuring Cory Gunz, "How to Love" and "She Will" featuring Drake. It sold 964,000 copies in the U.S. its first week out.