On the Record

By: Danny Jacobs

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright wrapped up her 20-minute speech Thursday at the University of Maryland School of Law by joking she was about to do something she never could while a government official – directly answer questions.

Albright did just that for another 20 minutes, touching on a wide range of foreign policy issues in addition to the ones she addressed in her speech. Among the highlights:

• She praised President Obama for working with Russia to deemphasize nuclear weapons and exand the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. “Diplomacy has the greatest value when conducted between people who do not agree,” said Albright, a Confucius-like statement that I had to ponder for several minutes before it made sense.
• She called climate change a national security issue, noting how countries bordering the Arctic have been staking claims on territory previously covered by ice.  But she expressed skepticism about any breakthroughs at the upcoming Copenhagen conference because it might be coming too early in the Obama administration. “Unless we get energy legislation, we can’t push others,” Albright said, adding the Kyoto Protocol probably came too late in the Clinton administration.
• She agreed with a questioner who asked about the changing role of the nation-state in diplomacy. Many of today’s global problems involve internal or territorial issues (think Darfur), or terrorist groups operating among various nations (think al-Qaeda). “What we’re finding is sovereignty is a moving target,” she said. Compounding the problem for the U.S., she added, is that Americans try to defend individual liberties in global hotspots but are the first people to protect the rights of a nation-state.

Albright covered a lot of serious issues, but she was also very funny. Her best lines came when talking about her 2000 meeting with Kim Jong Il in North Korea, “a country so backward it doesn’t even have a multinational law firm.” Albright also mentioned the “puffy-haired” Kim’s stature.

“I wear high heels to be taller,” she said. ”So does Kim Jong Il.”