Lydia Glenn

News Editor

lmg5921@psu.edu

Madeleine Albright, the first female Secretary of State who helped steer Western foreign policy in the aftermath of the Cold War has sadly died at the age of 84. 

On March 23, 2022,  Albright passed away after a long battle with cancer, which was made known in a statement put out by her family. 

Albright was a central figure in President Bill Clinton’s administration. She first served as a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and then became the nation’s top diplomat in his second term. 

She lead the expansion of NATO, pushed for the alliance to intervene in the Balkans to stop genocide and ethnic cleansing, sought to reduce the spread of nuclear weapons, and championed human rights and democracy across the globe. 

Albright was an inspiration to so many, and President Joe Biden made that clear in a statement issued on the day of her death. 

Biden said, “When I think of Madeline, I will always remember her fervent faith that ‘America is the indispensable nation.’” He also called Albright a “force” and said that working with her during the 1990s while he was on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was among the highlights of his Senate career.

Flags at the White House, as well as all other federal buildings, were ordered to be flown at half-mast in Albright’s honor. 

“Few leaders have been so perfectly suited for the times in which they served. As a child in a war-torn Europe, Madeline and her family were twice forced to flee their home. When the end of the Cold War ushered in a new era of global interdependence, she became America’s voice at the UN, then took the helm at the State Department, where she was a passionate force for freedom, democracy and human rights,” said Clinton in his statement. 

Clinton mentioned to CNN that he had recently spoken with Albright, his former top diplomat. He stated that she “spent the entire conversation talking about how Ukraine had to be defended and that we had put a lot of those who said we had made a mistake to expand NATO – she said, Russia’s, not going after NATO yet.”

He continued, “She just wanted to support whatever we could do to back Ukraine. And that’s all she wanted to talk about. She was happy. She was upbeat. And she didn’t want to venture into her health challenges. She said, ‘I’m being treated, I’m doing the best I can. The main thing we can all do now is to think about the world we want to leave for our kids.’” 

Albright was a face of U.S. foreign policy in the deacade between the end of the Cold War and the War on Terror which was triggered by the September 11, 2001 attacks. The U.S., particularly in Iraq and the Balkans, built international coalitions and occasionally intervened militarily to roll back autocratic regimes. Albright drew from her experience growing up in a family that fled Nazis and communists in mid-20th century Europe to share her worldview. 

She saw the U.S. as the “indispensable nation” when it came to diplomacy backed by the use of force to defend democratic values worldwide. 

In 1998, she told NBC “We stand tall and we see further than other countries into the future, and we see the danger here to all of us. I know that American men and women in uniform are always prepared to sacrifice freedom, democracy and the American way of life.”

The most notable effort in Albright’s career is when she put forth efforts to bring an end to violence in the Balkans. She was also crucial in pushing Clinton to intervene in Kosovo in 1999 to prevent a genocide against ethnic Muslims by former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic. According to CNN, she was haunted by the earlier failure of the Clinton administration to end the genocide in Bosnia. 

Late in Clinton’s second term, Albright participated in unsuccessful talks to foster peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. She was also part of the effort to coax North Korea into abandoning its nuclear program and engaging with Kim Jong II, an effort that was earlier abandoned by George W. Bush. 

During Albright’s tenure as Secretary of State she also saw the al-Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania which killed 224 people. She called this the “toughest day” of her tenure, but would reject any notion that it should have prompted tougher U.S. action against the terror group that would later carry out the 9/11 attacks. 

After her tenure as Secretary of State, Albright served as a chairwoman of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in Washington from 2001 until her death. She also taught at Georgetown University and was a prolific author. 

In 2012, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama who stated her “toughness helped bring peace to the Balkans and paved the way for progress in some of the most unstable corners of the world.”

Even after her retirement, Albright was still a force to be reckoned with. She continued working for democracy around the world and spoke about U.S. policy. She once stated that President Donald Trump was “the most undemocratic president in modern American history.” 

When asked by USA today in a 2020 interview about how she defined courage, she replied, “It’s when you stand up for what you believe in when it’s not always easy and you get criticized for it.” 

She continued, “It took me a long time to find my voice. But having found it, I’m not going to shut up. I’m going to use it to the best of my ability in terms of making sure that democracy is our form of government and that those around the world that want to live in a democracy have a possibility to do so.” 

Madeline Albright was an incredible voice in politics and stood up for the right for anyone and everyone to have and live in a democratic world. She was an inspiration and a true guide for many other female politicians. She will be remembered for the rest of time for her truly caring and humanitarian personality.