Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May 2003, pages 31, 45

Special Report

 

The Riddle of Condoleezza Rice: Just Another “Bushie,” or an Individual in Her Own Right?

 

By Lucille Barnes

Condoleezza Rice is a somewhat enigmatic person. In the next few weeks or months, however, she could be very important in determining the aftermath of resolving the issue of Iraqi President Saddam Hussain.

In general, the Old Guard “Bushies” have managed to find a succession of ways to postpone dealing with the Palestine problem. Secretary of State Colin Powell, on the other hand, was ready to deal with the issue very early in his tenure.

It became clear, however, that President George W. Bush wanted to postpone the subject, perhaps because there was some slight hope that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon might lose his reelection bid on Jan. 28, 2003—or at least that he would be politically crippled, meaning a new election within a year or so.

That might explain why Bush decided to go ahead and deal with Saddam Hussain rather than first turn his attention to Palestine. The question now is whether Bush again will try to postpone acting on the world’s urgent demand for action on the Israeli-Palestinian peace.

It may be that Bush really does expect to deal with the Palestinians now. One can’t forget, however, that there are a lot of people in his administration who, year after year, have made a career of postponing the Palestinian problem. If the president tends to postpone this matter again he may find that the Israeli-Palestinian crisis becomes the defining crisis of his administration.

Secretary of State Powell may insist on dealing with Palestine before any other crisis emerges, even if North Korea must be considered simultaneously. In fact, these two conundrums can be dealt with concurrently—and, since the rest of the world is waiting impatiently, there is no reason to delay.

At this point, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice may or may not weigh in. Although such an intervention would be uncharacteristic of her, it cannot be completely ruled out.

Rice was a child during some of the worst chapters of Birmingham, Alabama’s unhappy history. Her father, a Presbyterian minister, and mother, a long-time educator, actually took Rice to see the freedom marchers as they passed through Birmingham. An even more traumatic experience occurred when one of the children in Rice’s class, Denise McNair, was killed along with three other girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.

This period in Rice’s development came to an end when her family moved to Denver. After skipping two grades in school, Rice enrolled in the University of Denver. Early in her undergraduate years, Rice was an accomplished figure skater, and also hoped to become a concert pianist. However, under the guidance of Josef Korbel—father of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright—Rice decided to specialize in political science. Just before she graduated, Korbel took her aside and said, “You are extraordinarily bright. It would be a shame for you not to become a teacher.”

After graduating in 1974 with a degree in political science, Rice earned her master’s degree at the University of Notre Dame, returning to the University of Denver for her Ph.D.

She then joined the faculty of Stanford University. As a professor of political science, Rice won two of Stanford’s highest teaching honors, the 1984 Water J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 1993 School of Humanities and Sciences Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching. She also was a member of the Center for International Security and Arms Control, a senior fellow of the Institute for International Studies, and a fellow of the Hoover Institution.

Her books include Germany Unified and Europe Transformed (1995) with Philip Zelikow, The Gorbachev Era (1986) with Alexander Dallin, and Uncertain Allegiance: The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army (1984). In addition, she has written numerous articles on Soviet and East European foreign and defense policy.

Condoleezza Rice was first recommended by Gen. Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to the senior President Bush. In the course of that first Bush administration she met George W. Bush. When his father was not re-elected, Rice, saying she was “burned out” from electoral politics, returned to Stanford. The following year she was named university provost, the second-ranking faculty member. She served in that position for the next several years, before taking a leave of absence to help with the presidential campaign of George W. Bush. At that point Rice and Bush had bonded because of their shared interest in sports and physical exercise.

Rice and the younger Bush not only became friends, but found that their skills were complementary. As his presidential campaign got underway, Bush soon became dependent on Rice for summarizing key points. He would introduce her on the campaign trail by saying, “This is Condi Rice, she tells me everything I need to know about the former Soviet Union, and she speaks Russian!”

When Bush was elected, he named Rice as his national security adviser, and she in effect continued doing what she had done throughout the entire campaign. As Bush put his cabinet together, Rice realized that Vice President Richard Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had worked together on and off for about 30 years. Colin Powell, however, was the new kid on the block. Although he was a celebrity himself—and therefore an essential ingredient of the new Bush administration—Powell soon realized that he was not being consulted in the same manner as the other Bushies.

Aware of Powell’s awkwardness as he tried to fit in the new administration, Rice and the secretary of state decided that he needed some “face-time” with the president, just as Cheney and Rumsfeld enjoyed. Cheney, who had become “the elder statesman,” discussed everything in private with Bush before staff meetings, while the verbose Rumsfeld initiated many conversations with the president on his own.

Once Powell had received the same necessary “face-time” it was up to the senior cabinet members to each make their viewpoints known. This, to some extent, has been the pattern ever since, with Rice trying to ensure that all viewpoints are articulated.

Rice herself has served on many boards of directors, including the Chevron Corporation, the Charles Schwab Corporation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the University of Notre Dame, the International Advisory Council of J.P. Morgan and the San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors.

She has been a founding board member of the Center of a New Generation, an educational support fund for schools in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park, California, and was vice president of the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula. Her past board service has encompassed such organizations as Transamerica Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, the Carnegie Corporation, Carnegie Foundation for International Peace, the Rand Corporation, the National Council for Soviet and East European Studies, the Mid-Peninsula Urban Coalition, and KQED, San Francisco’s public broadcasting station.

Condoleezza Rice has practically been a member of two generations of the Bush family. It is not really clear, however, how strongly she can make her own wishes felt. Once or twice during the current Bush administration, the president has changed his mind on some matters without informing her.

At present, Bush seems to have gone too far in accommodating members of the Israel lobby, such as Under Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. If Bush is unable to make a course correction on his own, perhaps Powell and Rice can do it for him. Most of the world—with the exception of the Israel lobby—is hoping that this will happen.

Lucille Barnes covers Washington for middle east newspapers.

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