Madeline Albright at UCLA on Wednesday

I attended the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs Madeline Albright lecture and conversation. The Royce auditorium was full including many students in the Masters of Public Policy, Social Welfare and Urban Planning departments which make up the School of Public Affairs.  Michael Dukakis, a visiting professor at the school introduced the former Secretary of State.  Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr, the Dean of the school interviewed the Madam Secretary after her prepared speech. This was followed by questions from the audience.

Albright talked about a world of change.  She said that diplomacy is like a game of billiards...you shoot at a ball on the table which hits other balls and the whole game is changed.  She said that your interventions can often have unpredictable results...like the Ukraine crisis is causing an icier relationship between the EU and Russia.

She said that pride of identity often leads to hate of others who are not the same...like in  Syria and South Sudan.  She also talked about the data explosion and information sharing...good and bad has come from it...and it is overwhelming people.  It is also used to recruit terrorists.

She referred to a Mega Trend like the U.N. now has 196 countries who are all asserting themselves at once...the Stable, Acting Out, Rogue, and Basket Cases.  After the Arab Spring, they are trying to get from activism to governance.  "The World is a Mess!"

She said the U.S. cannot escape the world and leading is very had and more complex.  However, there is opportunity for new ideas and innovations...connections between policy, planning and social welfare.

"The war in Iraq was one of the biggest mistakes in American History."  The Afgan war was a necessity...that is where the people who planned 911 came from.  She said that the U.S. and Europe had little understanding of the complexity of the Middle Eastern countries with artificially drawn boundaries by the French and English after WWI.  The countries are made up of conflicting ethnic and religious groups that we see fighting each other today.  She said the people want change, but it will take a long time to settle.

She said the NSA surveillance is important to protect our country and that Snowden's release of secret information has been damaging to foreign relationships.  "Everyone spies...it is pure hypocrisy."  She said we need to have a public debate on the limits of domestic spying, but the bottom line is that we don't want to have another terrorist event in our country.

As a woman, you don't hold back.  You put facts together and present well.  She said the competition between women is difficult and vicious at times.  Regarding women or men in politics, she said that she prefers a man who is a feminist than a woman who isn't.

We need to build public and private partnerships to address the challenges but remember that private companies operate out of their own self interest.

She said she is deeply troubled by the U.S. fatigue in foreign relations. "I believe in the importance in American Power in the world but we must use it carefully.