The Mighty and the Almighty
[ 2006-05-11 10:44 ]
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Author: Madeleine Albright
List Price: $25.95
Pages: 352
Publisher: HarperCollins (May 2,
2006)
Dimensions: 9.2 x
6.3 x 1.3 inches
ISBN:
0060892579
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Albright brings considerable experience as a
former diplomat, history professor, and child of Czech immigrants to an
absorbing look at the intersection of world politics and world religion.
With a sweeping view of U.S. historical involvement in the fight against
communism and for human rights, as well as some of our more morally
dubious pursuits, Albright critiques U.S. foreign policy and our notions
of manifest destiny. From personal experiences, Albright notes the
importance of religion in shaping world events, including the influence of
Pope John Paul II on Poland and the world. As an admitted hybrid between
realist and idealist, Albright suggests that politics and the values of
faith can--and should--be joined in the interest of peace. But unfettered
reliance on religious beliefs to guide politics is a formula for continued
conflict. While President Bush portrays the U.S. anti-terrorism campaign
as one aimed against evil, Albright notes that Osama bin Laden also
"portrays a clash between the good defender and the evil aggressor, but
with roles reversed." Albright details the historic conflicts between
Christianity and Islam, between Israelis and Muslims, and conflicts among
Muslims, all based on interpretations of religious texts. She believes the
Christian Right has contributed to the complexity of foreign diplomacy
with encroachment into areas that had formerly been personal matters--from
contraception to sexual orientation--that are now matters of international
interest. A thoughtful and absorbing look at religion and world politics
for readers of all religious and political persuasions.
Book
review
The former UN Ambassador
and Secretary of State sees a place for personal faith among public
officials. She believes personal faith has helped
herself and many other people make very difficult decisions which impacted
the world.
However, she doesn't use that personal faith as a public battering ram
to attack 'others' and their perspectives. Having grown up under state
oppression, she knows first-hand what totalitarian states where everybody
must worship one way...etc really are like. Albright did not and still
does not attempt to turn her own faith into a partisan and one-dimensional
caricature for political benefit.
Her public faith is a civil belief in the state to advocate for the
less fortunate. She understands democracy doesn't work when only talked
about in the abstract. It has to be practiced.
Contrasting with the current administration, she sees the world as
complex and multifaceted--there are no clear-cut good and evil sides in a
religious conflict. Current American policy prolongs the bloodshed by not
adopting a more nuanced analysis.
Author
introduction
Madeleine Korbel Albright is America's
first female secretary of state and the highest-ranking woman to serve in
the U.S. government.
The U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations from 1993 to
1996, Albright was nominated by President Bill Clinton in December 1996 to
become the nation's 64th secretary of state, succeeding Warren
Christopher. Unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, she was sworn into
office on Jan. 23, 1997.
As secretary of state, Albright serves as the president's principal
adviser on foreign policy, conducts negotiations related to U.S. foreign
affairs, and is a member of the National Security Council.
Albright has been the president of the Center for National Policy, a
nonprofit research organization that promotes the study and discussion of
domestic and international issues, and a research professor of
international affairs and the director of the Women in Foreign Service
Program at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.
From 1981 to 1982, Albright was a senior fellow at the Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian Institution. She has
also served as a senior fellow in Soviet and Eastern European affairs at
the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Albright was a staff member on the National Security Council and at the
White House, where she was responsible for foreign policy legislation,
from 1978 to 1981. She served as chief legislative assistant to Senator
Edmund S. Muskie from 1976 to 1978.
Awarded a bachelor's degree with honors in political science from
Wellesley College, she attended the School of Advanced International
Studies at Johns Hopkins University, received a certificate from Columbia
University's Russian Institute, and earned her master's and doctorate at
Columbia's department of public law and government.
Born in Prague, 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," "The Role of
the Press in Political Change: Czechoslovakia, 1968," and "The Soviet
Diplomatic Service: Profile of an Elite."
She has three daughters.
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