Brings to the job: Eight years at the White House and the State Department in the Clinton administration and special expertise in the problems posed by weak and failed states, global poverty and transnational security threats. She has a reputation for being blunt-spoken, but also for being a politically connected fast-riser. A protégé of Madeleine K. Albright when she was secretary of state, Ms. Rice catapulted over more veteran officials in 1997 to become one of the youngest assistant secretaries of state ever. She also brings early experience with Al Qaeda; Ms. Rice was the top diplomat for African issues during the 1998 terrorist bombings of embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.
Is linked to Mr. Obama by: More than two years as a member of his inner circle, including as senior foreign policy adviser to the Obama-Biden campaign. She showed early loyalty to Mr. Obama; despite her ties to the Clinton administration, she signed on with Mr. Obama at a time when Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was presumed to be the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.
In her own words: Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 11, 2007, in favor of authorizing United States military action against Sudan if the genocide in Darfur continued: "Some argue that it is unthinkable in the current context. True, the international climate is less forgiving than it was in 1999 when we acted in Kosovo. Iraq and torture scandals have left many abroad doubting our motives and legitimacy. Some will reject any future U.S. military action, especially against an Islamic regime, even if purely to halt genocide against Muslim civilians. Sudan has also threatened that Al Qaeda will attack non-African forces in Darfur -- a possibility since Sudan long hosted bin Laden and his businesses."
"Yet, to allow another state to deter the U.S. by threatening terrorism would set a terrible precedent. It would also be cowardly and, in the face of genocide, immoral."
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Used to work as: A member of the National Security Council staff under President Clinton, first as director for international organizations and peacekeeping, and then as a special assistant to the president and senior director for African affairs. From 1997 to 2001, she was assistant secretary of state for African affairs.
Carries as baggage: The potential for tough questioning over her role in American policy toward Rwanda during the 1994 genocide when she was a member of a Clinton administration team that kept the United States on the sidelines, and how that experience has affected her thinking. She told The Atlantic Monthly in 2001 that she had learned a lesson: "I swore to myself that if I ever faced such a crisis again, I would come down on the side of dramatic action, going down in flames if that was required."
Is otherwise known for: How much she has in common with Condoleezza Rice, the current secretary of state. They are both female African-American foreign policy experts who have ties to Stanford University, but they are not related.