Martha Brant “She’s young, she’s impatient, she’s blunt. Susan Rice is a different kind of diplomat.”

Susan Elizabeth Rice (born November 17, 1964) is an American foreign policy advisor and United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Rice served on the staff of the National Security Council and as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs during President Bill Clinton’s second term. Rice is the United States’ third woman ambassador to the UN, following Madeleine Albright and Jeane Kirkpatrick. She is also the first black woman to hold the position. Rice was confirmed by the United States Senate by unanimous consent on January 22, 2009.

Rice was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in the Shepherd Park area.^[2] Her father, Emmett J. Rice, is a Cornell University economics professor and former governor of the Federal Reserve System.^[2] Her mother is education policy scholar Lois Dickson Fitt. Rice was a three-sport athlete, student council president, and valedictorian at National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C., a private day girls’ school.^[3] She played point guard in basketball and directed the offense, acquiring the nickname “Spo,” short for “Sportin’.”^[3]

Her father always told her to “never use race as an excuse or advantage”. As a young girl she says she “dreamed of becoming the first U.S. Senator from the District of Columbia“.^[2] She also held “lingering fears” that her accomplishments would be diminished by people who attributed them to affirmative action.^[2]

Rice attended Stanford University, where she received a Truman Scholarship, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1986. She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.^[4] On graduation day, as she shook hands with University President Donald Kennedy, he said, “I know who you are.”^[3] She and Condoleezza Rice, the former U.S. Secretary of State, are both female foreign policy experts of African American descent who have ties to Stanford University; however, they are not related.^[5]

Awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, Rice attended New College, Oxford, where she earned a M.Phil. in 1988 and D.Phil. in 1990. The Chatham House-British International Studies Association honored her dissertation titled ” Commonwealth Initiative in Zimbabwe , 1979-1980: Implication for International Peacekeeping” as the UK’s most distinguished in international relations.^[2][6]

Rice’s classmates and professors at Oxford included advocates of the role of the United Nations and international law (Sir Adam Roberts, Benedict Kingsbury^[7]), of global economic governance and international economic cooperation (Ngaire Woods, Donald Markwell^[8]), and of a firm stance against Russian authoritarianism (Michael McFaul^[9]). Sir Adam Roberts is also an expert on international humanitarian intervention, a topic in which Rice has taken a close interest.

Rice married Canadian-born ABC News producer Ian Officer Cameron (born in Victoria, British Columbia)^[10] in 1992; they met as students at Stanford.^[11] They reside in Washington, D.C. with their two children.

Interview with Obama’s new ambassador to the U.N.

President-elect Barack Obama has nominated Dr. Susan Rice to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, a job once again elevated to cabinet-level.

Dave interviewed Dr. Rice during the Democratic National Convention in Denver this summer.

Rice was a senior foreign policy adviser to Obama’s presidential campaign. They talked foreign policy, Putin, and basketball.

Listen to this interview

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