February 5, 2004

Former Secretary Of State Madeleine Albright
To Hold Public Conversations At UCSD Feb. 13

By Barry Jagoda

Madeleine K. Albright, secretary of state under President Clinton, will visit the University of California, San Diego for a foreign policy discussion with two UCSD international affairs experts at 2 p.m. Feb. 13 at the Institute of the Americas Auditorium on the UCSD campus. The public is invited to attend.

Participating with Secretary Albright will be Susan Shirk, professor of Political Science in the UCSD School of International Relations/Pacific Studies (IR/PS) and Jeffrey Davidow, president of the Institute of the Americas. Shirk is a former deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and Davidow is former assistant secretary of state for Latin American affairs and U. S. Ambassador to a number of countries.

Secretary Albright was the top U.S. diplomat for the four years of the second Clinton Administration. She was the first female secretary of state and the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government. Prior to her appointment she had been the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and served in high-ranking positions in foreign relations on Capitol Hill and in the Carter Administration. Albright was also a university professor and earned a doctorate in political science. Her most recent book, Madame Secretary, was published in late 2003. She is currently president of the Albright Group, a global strategy firm working with business and other organizations.

Both UCSD foreign policy experts previously served in the State Department, partly under the tenure of Secretary Albright. As deputy assistant secretary for China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, Shirk was responsible for the same Northeast Asian areas, which form her principal research focus. During his foreign service career, much of Davidow’s effort was on improving relations with Latin America. From 1996 to 1998, as assistant secretary of state for Latin America, he was chief U. S. policy maker for the hemisphere, later serving as ambassador to Mexico from 1998 to 2002.

The “Conversation with Secretary Albright” is co-sponsored by the UCSD Graduate School of International Relations/Pacific Studies and the Institute of the Americas.

Media contacts:
Paula Cichocka, (858) 534-1465, or Barry Jagoda, (858) 534-8567