Condoleeza Rice

Condoleeza Rice (1954-) is a U.S. academic specialist in international relations and Soviet studies, who served as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (first term) and the 66th Secretary of State (second term) in the George W. Bush Administration. Before coming to that Administration, she was Provost of Stanford University, having served in other faculty appointments there. She was also an advisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the National Security Council in the George H.W. Bush (Bush 41) Administration.

In the George W. Bush Administration, she enjoyed a high degree of rapport with the President. She was not, however, considered a strong bureaucratic infighter, and, in particular, battled with Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. During the first Bush 43 administration, she enjoyed somewhat better relations with Secretary of State Colin Powell, although their views differed in some areas.

Early life
Before college, she was in national level competition in both piano and ice skating, before deciding on political science. African-American by heritage, she grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, and speaks of her family's high standards.

Her undergraduate work in political science was at the University of Denver. Her master's came from the University of Notre Dame in 1975, and her doctorate from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver in 1981. She then went onto the political science faculty at Stanford.

Initial government service
She was named anadvisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1987, and in 1989 became director of Soviet and East European Affairs on the National Security Council.

National Security Adviser
She was involved in the initial planning for counterterrorism, reducing the bureaucratic rank of Richard Clarke from principal to deputy. Rice was operationally involved in the response to the 9-11 attack, the planning of the Iraq War. She was one of the first senior officials briefed on the intensified interrogation and extrajudicial detention of terrorist suspects.

Secretary of State
She was involved in several key Middle East negotiations, including the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and ceasefire in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict involving Hizbollah. She organized the Annapolis Conference of November 27, 2007, which focused on finding a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem.

Nuclear proliferation was another priority. She argued for sanctions against Iran unless it stopped or reduced its nuclear program. She opposed bilateral talks with North Korea although was an active supporter of the Six Party Talks between China, Japan, Russia, North Korea, South Korea, and the United States.

In October 2008, one of Rice's most successful negotiations came to fruition, with the signing of the U.S.-India Agreement for Cooperation Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy (123 Agreement), which would allow civil nuclear trade between the two countries.