Susan Rice in Foreign Policy

On Civil Rights: Confident black women inadvertently intimidate certain men

Some of Rice's defenders say criticism of her no-nonsense manner smacks of sexism. In her book, Rice writes about the challenges of pushing her way upward in a man's world of high-level policymaking: "The combination--being a confident black woman who is not seeking permission or affirmation from others--I suspect accounts for why I inadvertently intimidate some people, especially certain men, and perhaps also why I have long inspired motivated detractors who simply can't deal with me." Source: Foreign Policy magazine on 2020 Veepstakes Jul 29, 2020

On Welfare & Poverty: 1994: Regrets no U.S. intervention in Rwandan genocide

During the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Rice was the NSC director for international organizations and peacekeeping under National Security Advisor Anthony Lake in the Bill Clinton administration. Both Lake and Rice later expressed regret about failing to advocate U.S. intervention, and Clinton himself called it one of the biggest mistakes of his presidency.

"Everyone who lived through that feels profoundly remorseful and bothered by it," Rice told me in an interview in 2008, though she said she was too "junior" at the time to have affected decision-making very much.

Even so, Rice later came under criticism for her relationship with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who was supplying and financing a brutal Congolese rebel force known as the March 23 (M23) Movement. While Rice did criticize M23, she avoided linking the group to Rwanda and Kagame.

Source: Foreign Policy magazine on 2020 Veepstakes Jul 29, 2020

The above quotations are from Columns and news articles in Foreign Policy magazine. Click here for other excerpts from Columns and news articles in Foreign Policy magazine. Click here for other excerpts by Susan Rice. Click here for a profile of Susan Rice.
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