Irish Examiner view: Influential voice on the world stage

Madeleine Albright (1937-2022) broke boundaries and became a powerful influence during previous periods of global crisis 

Former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright who died this week. Picture: Zach Gibson/AP

It is interesting to speculate what approach Madeleine Albright, who died this week, might have followed in the teeth of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s barbarous war in Ukraine.

Albright, who became the first female US secretary of state in 1997, studied under Jimmy Carter’s foreign affairs adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, who, during a ceremonial visit to the Great Wall of China during Carter’s presidency, was overheard to say, “last one to the top gets to fight the Russians”.