Issue 154

Political profiles: Condoleezza Rice

12th March 2007

Currently the Secretary of State for the Bush administration in the United States, the 52 year old Condoleezza Rice has been twice named in Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people, and is the first African- American woman to hold her current post.

During the first term of the Bush administration she held the post of National Security Advisor. Before joining the Bush administration she was a professor of political science at Stanford University.

Despite her many repeated claims to the contrary, there are those in the Republican party who regard her as a strong candidate for the 2008 presidential elections to succeed George W. Bush.

Known by many as "the brains of the Bush administration," her academic credentials are without question: she studied international politics at Denver University before eventually earning a masters and a PHD at age 26 in the same subject.

During gaps in her academic and political careers she served on the board of directors for several large corporations, including Hewlett Packard and the Rand Corporation. She speaks fluent Russian, as she specialised in the former Soviet Union, along with the ability to speak good German, Spanish and French.

During her time as George W. Bush's National Security Advisor, she became one of the principle supporters of the war in Iraq in 2003 and is one of the principle architects of the current administration's somewhat violent foreign policy.

With the 2008 primary elections looming, many see Condoleezza Rice as a prime candidate to take on the democratic powerhouses of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Al Gore in the race for the White House.

Dan Shaw