Washington Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has died at the age of 84. She succumbed to cancer on Wednesday surrounded by family and friends, her family said in a statement shared via Albright’s verified Twitter account. The TV channel CNN reported that Albright’s death was also confirmed in an email to employees of a consulting firm she co-founded.
Albright became the US government’s ambassador to New York under President Bill Clinton. She later became the first woman to head the State Department in Washington. In the process, the Democrat, originally from Eastern Europe whose family had once immigrated to the United States, became a leading voice in US foreign policy in the 20th century. State Department spokesman Ned Price said Wednesday her influence can still be felt in every corridor of the agency today.
Shortly before her death, Albright found harsh words for Russian President Vladimir Putin, one day before Russia’s war of aggression began. “An invasion of Ukraine would not pave Russia’s path to greatness, but seal Mr. Putin’s dishonor by leaving his country diplomatically isolated, economically crippled and strategically vulnerable to a stronger, unified Western alliance,” she wrote in a op-ed in the ” New York Times”.
If Mr. Putin feels cornered, he can only blame himself. Albright said Ukraine has a right to its sovereignty regardless of who its neighbors are. “In the modern age, big countries accept that, and Mr. Putin has to accept that too.”
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Madeleine Albright played a decisive role in shaping US foreign policy after the collapse of the Eastern bloc: as Ambassador to the United Nations and then as the first Secretary of State, she campaigned resolutely, eloquently, and principledly for America’s interests. Originally from Eastern Europe, the Democrat became a leading voice in US foreign policy in the 20th century under then-President Bill Clinton. After leaving government, Albright wrote several successful books, among other things.
Even after her time in active politics, Albright made no secret of her worldview. US President Donald Trump, for example, accused her of dividing the country and damaging democracy. “He is the most undemocratic president in modern U.S. history,” Albright said circa 2018.
Trump’s disdain for the media and institutional structures endangers the country’s stability. “We have to do something about this,” warned the then 81-year-old at a panel discussion on her book “Fascism. A warning”. Democracy should not be taken for granted, she warned. “I worry – more every day.”
Specialist in international crises
As UN ambassador in New York from 1993, Albright tried to get the USA to play a leading role in resolving crises that broke out after the end of the East-West conflict. However, the trouble spots of Somalia, Rwanda and Bosnia also showed the limits of US foreign policy. Experts praised Albright, for example, for her hard line on Iraq and the military junta in Haiti.
Critics sometimes called Albright’s appearance at the UN undiplomatic. But she saw it more as praise for her resolute advocacy of American interests. Then, in 1996, she played a key role in efforts to bar UN Secretary-General Butros Butros-Ghali from a second term. The United States accused him of a lack of will to reform. Albright ultimately pushed through the US will against strong resistance from the international community.
In Clinton’s second term, beginning in 1997, Albright became the first woman to serve as the State Department, making her the highest-ranking woman in a US government office. Born in Prague in 1937, the diplomat campaigned emphatically for NATO’s eastward expansion. “Madam Secretary” also made targeted efforts to maintain relations with allies. She is said to have had a very good relationship with the then German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.
She also relied on this when efforts to reach an agreement in the Kosovo conflict with the then Serb President Slobodan Milosevic failed. She successfully campaigned for NATO airstrikes in the former Yugoslavia. Albright also dabbled in foreign policy big planks, including better relations with Russia and peace in the Middle East, but with no great results. Albright remained secretary of state until the end of Clinton’s second term in January 2001.
From diplomat’s daughter to professor
Albright’s reappraisal of the history of her family – which the politician had known nothing about for decades – also attracted attention. She was born Marie Jana (known as Madlenka) Korbelova on May 15, 1937 in Prague, the eldest of three children in a Jewish family of diplomats. After German troops invaded, the family emigrated to England, where Albright, unaware of her Jewish origins, was raised as a Catholic.
Her father Joseph Korbel served Czechoslovakia as a diplomat after World War II. After the communists took power in Prague, the family applied for asylum in the USA in 1948 and emigrated. It was not until 1996 that Albright found out about her Jewish descent and the deaths of relatives, including three of her grandparents, in Nazi concentration camps survived,” she wrote in the book Winter in Prague: Memoirs of My War Childhood.
The political scientist married her college friend Joseph Albright, the heir to a media company, in 1959. With him she had three daughters, after 23 years of marriage the Albrights divorced. Albright only began her political career in 1975 when her children were older. First she worked for a senator, then in the White House as a staff member of the National Security Council. From 1982 she taught at the renowned Georgetown University in Washington and advised various democratic candidates – including Clinton, who immediately brought her on board after his election victory at the end of 1992.
Even after leaving government in 2001 and returning to Georgetown University as a professor, Albright did not retire from politics. She founded a global consulting firm that also counted Joschka Fischer among its experts.
In addition, she repeatedly spoke out with biting criticism of foreign policy, such as the Iraq war instigated by President George W. Bush. Prior to the 2008 presidential election, Albright initially backed Democrat Hillary Clinton, but then backed the victorious Barack Obama. In 2012 she was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.