Western, Jon, 60–61, 131–132, 516
Wexler, Becca, 478, 480, 484, 485, 531
White Helmets, in Syria, 502–503. See also Saleh, Raed
Wiesel, Elie, 119, 161, 163, 240, 243
Williams, Marthalene, 444
Winthrop, Massachusetts, SP home in, 123–124, 208, 284
Wong, Kam, 492
Woods, Tyrone, 310–311
World Health Organization, 346, 456n
Wright, Reverend Jeremiah, 195
Writebol, Nancy, 434, 435
Wyman, David, 119
X test, 74, 137, 149, 198, 446, 474
Xi Jinping, 518, 548. See also China
Yad Vashem (Holocaust Remembrance Center), Israel, 119
Yale Daily News, 40, 64
Yale University, 39, 40, 42–44, 48, 161
Yanukovych, Viktor, 408, 410
Yazidis, Obama response to threat to, 511–512
Yemen, 276, 276n, 467
Žepa, Serb assault on UN safe area of, 101, 101n
Photo Section
My mother (bottom row, center) at age sixteen with her secondary school field hockey team. On their wedding day in 1968, my parents, Jim Power, age thirty-one, and Vera Delaney, age twenty-four, outside the church in Cork City, Ireland. They are flanked by her sister Patricia Delaney and his brother-in-law Vincent Pippet. My early years in Dublin, with Mum and Dad. With my younger brother, Stephen, in 1978, the year before we left Ireland for the United States. Mum and Eddie in the late 1970s. After arriving in Pittsburgh in 1979, I chopped off my red hair, practiced an American accent, and quickly immersed myself in the foreign sport of baseball. In 1983, not long after Mum and Eddie moved Stephen and me to Atlanta, Georgia. With Eddie, who was full of mischief and who raised me to appreciate the power and magic of storytelling. As the starting shooting guard on the Lakeside High School basketball team, I spent countless afternoons and weekends in solitude shooting baskets. With my college boyfriend Schu during our trip through Europe in the summer of 1990. Mum, Stephen, and Eddie at my college graduation in 1992. Fred Cuny, renowned as the “Master of Disaster” for his relief work in more than thirty crisis zones. He would successfully engineer a dangerous operation to restore water to besieged Sarajevans.
Cuny Family Jonathan Moore, a former US official who served under six presidents, and Mort Abramowitz, a retired US diplomat who became my first boss when I interned at the Carnegie Endowment. They became two of my most important mentors and influences. In August of 1993, en route to Bosnia for the first time, with journalist George Stamkoski and my friend Ben Cohen (not pictured). The handmade “PRESS” placard in the window of our rental car was intended as a safety precaution. I joined George and Ben in interviewing a group of Bosnian military officers in Bihać, a small Muslim enclave in the northwest corner of Bosnia that was surrounded on all sides by Serb forces. On a reporting trip to central Bosnia with Laura Pitter, who was instrumental in encouraging me to move to the Balkans to become a foreign correspondent. Traveling with Croatian journalist Hrvoje Hranjski on a UN flight from Zagreb, Croatia, to Sarajevo, Bosnia, in April of 1994. Interviewing UN Force Commander Michael Rose in Sarajevo in 1995. Writing a story in Sarajevo in 1995. My closest friends in Bosnia were a small group of female reporters, including (from left) Laura Pitter, Elizabeth Rubin, Emma Daly, and Stacy Sullivan. Journalist David Rohde and I interviewing a survivor of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
Geoffrey W. King Crossing the finish line of the 1995 New York City Marathon. My decision to splash the morbid public service announcement “Remember Srebrenica” across my chest created some confusion along the route. Cornering bemused Hall of Fame Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez at a charity event, where I couldn’t stop myself from giving him a long account of the genocide book I was writing. With US diplomat Richard Holbrooke. Despite turning down his job offer during the Bosnian war, he eventually became a trusted friend and counselor. Eddie and Mum, who have edited dozens of drafts of each of my books, beside piles of chapters that they’ve marked up. One of my most important professional collaborations—and friendships—has been with John Prendergast. In 2004, we crossed the border from Chad into Darfur, Sudan (above), to investigate the genocide there and then, along with Gayle Smith, became involved in the Save Darfur campaign.
Jason Maloney Speaking at a Women for Obama event in the early months of his presidential campaign.
Hiroko Masuike/New York Times/Redux Leading cheers with Obama campaign adviser Austan Goolsbee after Obama won the Iowa Caucus in January of 2008.
Des Moines Register/USA Today Network Peter Yang Cass and I started dating in early 2008, spending time writing side-by-side in my Winthrop, Massachusetts, apartment. We were married on July 4th, 2008, in Waterville, Ireland. After pulling an all-nighter to work on his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, President Obama summoned me and his speechwriters Jon Favreau and Ben Rhodes to discuss his new handwritten draft.
Pete Souza/The Obama White House Declan Power Sunstein was born in April of 2009, and two months later, he met President Obama for the first time.
Pete Souza/The Obama White House Mum and Eddie visiting the White House in early 2009. President Obama and members of his national security staff discuss Sudan in September of 2010.
Courtesy Barack Obama Presidential Library At the memorial service for Richard Holbrooke, who died of a heart attack in 2010. In the years ahead I would find myself constantly wishing I could pick up the phone to seek Holbrooke’s advice.
AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster With President Obama, Senior Advisor David Plouffe, National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, and Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, discussing Obama’s upcoming trip to the 2011 UN General Assembly.
Pete Souza/The Obama White House María Castro (with Obama and Rían) made it possible for me to work such punishing hours at the White House and the UN. For nine years, at great personal sacrifice, she cared for my kids with indescribable tenderness.
Pete Souza/The Obama White House In June of 2013, President Obama nominated me to become US Ambassador to the UN. While Declan sat calmly in Mum’s arms for the ceremony, Rían had other ideas . . .
Elliot Thomson After my confirmation hearing ended, four-year-old Declan jumped into my arms, and a pool of photographers descended on the hearing table to capture the shot. After this picture ran in several prominent newspapers, I received notes from women saying how heartened they were to see someone attempting a national security Cabinet role with small children in tow.
AP Photo/Cliff Owen On August 2nd, 2013, Vice President Joe Biden presided over my swearing in as UN ambassador.
Presidential Materials Division, National Archives and Records Administration Presenting my credentials to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2013. Upon seeing this photo, the French ambassador to the UN asked me mischievously, “You wore your swimsuit to present credentials?”
UN Photo/Evan Schneider Three weeks after I became UN ambassador, the Assad regime in Syria staged a massive chemical weapons attack that killed more than 1,400 people. After a Cabinet meeting on September 12th, 2013, we discussed our next steps in response.
Pete Souza/The Obama White House As a former reporter, I retained the habit of bringing my notebooks everywhere and carefully detailing what I heard. Here, in October of 2013 in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, I listened to an internally displaced Congolese woman describe ferocious attacks that drove her from her home.
Michelle Nichols/Reuters I had many public battles with Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, but even amid our feuding, I continued to try to work with him to confront shared threats.
Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images In June of 2015, I visited Maidan Square in Kiev, Ukraine, to pay respects to the more than one hundred people who were killed by Ukrainian security forces during the massive protests that occurred in late 2013 and early 2014.
AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov The US Ambassador to the United Nations is immensely fortuna
te to be able to rely on four deputy US ambassadors, who rotated at various points during my tenure. Here, I’m pictured with ambassadors David Pressman, Michele Sison, Sarah Mendelson, and Isobel Coleman.
United States Mission to the United Nations In October of 2014, during the height of the Ebola epidemic, I traveled to the three affected countries in West Africa. In Freetown, Sierra Leone, soldiers briefed me on how they had dramatically expanded their ability to safely bury those who had died from Ebola.
Michelle Nichols/Reuters In Monrovia, Liberia, Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and I showed off the “elbow bump” that had replaced handshakes, hugs, and kisses as a safe form of greeting throughout the region.
AP Photo/Abbas Dulleh Obama plays soccer with Declan at a Camp David Cabinet retreat.
Courtesy Barack Obama Presidential Library Stephanie Sinclair With Declan and Rían (above) on a typical morning. While my kids generally seemed to delight in engaging foreign ambassadors and UN officials, sometimes they were not in the mood. Here, Rían “poses” with Ban Ki-moon. During my eight years in the Obama administration, I leaned heavily on María Castro, my parents, and friends like John Prendergast (above), Elliot Thomson (above), and Laura Pitter (above). As vital and loving as my support network was, Declan and Rían longed for a time when I could be with them without working on my phone or dealing with a national security intrusion.
Elliot Thomson When I arrived at the UN in 2013, women comprised 37 of the 193 ambassadors. I often invited my female colleagues for dinners, cultural events, and substantive discussions. In this gathering, we spent an evening in dialogue with feminist and political activist Gloria Steinem (center left).
United States Mission to the United Nations Rían and I holiday shopping, with an assist from the head of my security detail.
United States Mission to the United Nations Each September, President Obama visited New York for the UN General Assembly and carried out the presidential equivalent of speed-dating with heads of state from around the world. Here, in 2015, Obama, Deputy National Security Adviser Avril Haines, and I hurried into the US Mission to the UN, and in 2014, I spoke with Obama as he chaired a Security Council meeting on ISIS.
United States Mission to the United Nations AP Photo/Julie Jacobson AP Photo/Rukmal Gamage When I traveled overseas, I made a point of adding a stop on each trip to meet with local girls. Here, I played a game called Elle in Sri Lanka, basketball in Nigeria, and soccer in Mexico.
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik United States Mission to the United Nations In September of 2015, I had the great fortune of speaking at María’s naturalization as a US citizen. In December of 2015, hearing how rhetoric toward refugees generally and Syrians in particular was growing inflamed, I invited the Al-Teibawis, a newly arrived family of Syrian refugees, to the ambassador’s residence for an American dinner.
Brian Harkin/New York Times/Redux Meeting with a mother and her young child in April of 2016 at a camp in Nigeria for people displaced by Boko Haram violence. By this point, Boko Haram had forced 2.5 million people from their homes.
Randy Haniel/AFP/Getty Images In August of 2016, six-year-old Alex Myteberi (left) wrote a letter to President Obama inviting a young Syrian who had survived an airstrike to come live with him in the US. Here, Declan welcomed Alex and his family to the UN for a tour.
United States Mission to the United Nations Nujeen Mustafa (left) and her sister Nisreen (right) in Berlin in 2016. Nujeen, a Syrian Kurd from Aleppo who has cerebral palsy, rode her wheelchair more than 3,500 miles seeking asylum.
United States Mission to the United Nations In 2016, I visited an English class for newly arrived refugees in Buffalo, New York. One of the students told me, “In America, we found peace.”
United States Mission to the United Nations The relationship between UN ambassadors and Secretaries of State has not always been easy. But Secretary of State John Kerry was a mentor, partner, and friend.
AP Photo/Bryan R. Smith I called for the release of twenty female political prisoners in the #Freethe20 campaign. By the time I left government in January of 2017, fourteen of the twenty women we profiled had been freed. Two more would be released from jail the following month.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Even when we disagreed on issues, Vice President Biden would pass me notes in the Situation Room, encouraging me to keep raising my voice, and during tense times he could be counted on for humor and warmth.
Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images At a state dinner in honor of French president François Hollande.
Andrew Harrer/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images Speaking to the press on a visit to South Sudan with the UN Security Council in 2016, and walking with South Sudanese president Salva Kiir.
UN Photo/Isaac Billy Bullen Chol/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Casting the US vote for UN Security Council sanctions on North Korea. We also initiated the Council’s first discussion of the North Korean government’s brutal treatment of its own people. In Seoul, South Korea, I met inspiring young women who risked death to escape North Korea and were studying to become nurses, engineers, and lawyers.
AP Photo/Seth Wenig United States Mission to the United Nations Election night, 2016. I invited all the female ambassadors to the UN to watch the returns. By this point in the evening, I and the other ambassadors knew that the United States was not going to elect its first female president.
Gilbert King I brought my family on one last tour of the UN before departing my post on January 20th, 2017. We each took up a seat and pretended to stage a Council vote on whether the US should remain in the Paris climate agreement.
About the Author
SAMANTHA POWER is a professor of practice at Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Law School. From 2013 to 2017, Power served in the cabinet of President Barack Obama and as the youngest ever US ambassador to the United Nations. From 2009 to 2013, Power worked on the National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights. Power’s book, “Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003. She is also the author of the New York Times bestseller Chasing the Flame: One Man’s Fight to Save the World. Power, who began her career as a journalist reporting from places such as Bosnia, East Timor, Rwanda, and Sudan, has been named one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People.” She immigrated to the United States from Ireland as a child, and she lives in Massachusetts with her husband, Cass Sunstein, and their two children.
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* Rereading the article again recently, I think the language that put me off was: “For our purposes, it matters very little what strange thoughts occur to people in Albania or Burkina Faso.”
* In 1991, as the US Ambassador to Tur
key, Mort had been influential in convincing President George H. W. Bush to use the US military to enforce a no-fly zone protecting displaced Kurds in Northern Iraq from Saddam Hussein’s attacks. In the wake of the Cold War, the United States and Russia raised hopes that they would be able to work together on ambitious new initiatives, voting together on a unanimous UN Security Council to authorize the mission.
* The Serbo-Croatian term “Jugo” means “Southern,” while “slavija” can loosely be translated as “land of the Slavs.”
* Slovenia, home to almost no Serbs, secured its independence in 1991 without much of a fight. Croatia, which was 12 percent Serb, also won independence in 1991, but armed Croatian Serbs, supported by Milošević, seized control of a quarter of the country, maintaining a self-styled breakaway republic for several years.
* In 1979, Congress split this agency into the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services.
* It was not until 2000 that Foreign Policy was reinvented from a quarterly journal into a bimonthly magazine for a wider audience. In 2008, the Washington Post Company purchased the magazine from the Carnegie Endowment and further expanded its reach into the online and print publication it is today.
* Serbo-Croatian was the primary language in Yugoslavia, but when the country broke up, Croatians, Bosnians, and Montenegrins claimed their own languages, purging certain words (with Croatians and Bosnians using the Roman rather than Cyrillic alphabet). Today, despite linguistic variations, the four languages are mutually intelligible versions of what had been Serbo-Croatian.
* Serb forces seized Žepa in late July, and burned much of the town to the ground. The majority of civilians fled or were evacuated to Sarajevo, but Bosnian Serb soldiers killed hundreds who were unable to escape.
* I am paraphrasing Holocaust historian Walter Laqueur, who, describing Germany in late 1942, wrote, “It is, in fact, quite likely that while many Germans thought that the Jews were no longer alive, they did not necessarily believe that they were dead.” The other fitting analogy to my mental state was Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter’s response in 1942 to Jan Karski’s eyewitness account of one of Hitler’s concentration camps: “I can’t believe you.” When told that Karski was telling the truth, Frankfurter, who was himself Jewish, added, “I did not say this young man is lying. I said that I cannot believe him. There is a difference.”
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