The Education of an Idealist

by Samantha Power

  It is true that the foundation for US leadership abroad is the strength of our democracy at home. But it is also indisputable that the policies we pursue overseas can have huge effects—good and bad—on our daily lives.

  DURING MY TIME IN GOVERNMENT, I came to better appreciate the constraints that stand in the way of making positive change. Even the most conscientious government decision-makers operate with shrouded and shifting fields of vision, deciding among wholly imperfect options. I felt the lasting damage caused by US government mistakes, particularly regarding the use of US military force. Irrespective of American intentions, the government’s sins of commission—but also those of omission—underscore the immense responsibility one takes on as a public servant, and the need for humility about one’s judgments.

  I saw how important it is not to shun those with whom we disagree. As the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr once said, “We must always seek the truth in our opponent’s error and the error in our own truth.” This is just as important in our domestic politics as in our foreign dealings.

  I was affirmed in my view that, when we respect human rights at home and abroad, we are stronger. This does not mean we should impose our values on other countries, pursue regime change, or end ties with governments that abuse their people. But it does mean standing up for those in need. The United States cannot dictate outcomes, but we often have more influence than we use.

  I believe that dignity is an underestimated force in politics and geopolitics. Why did a Tunisian fruit vendor light himself on fire, setting off the Arab Spring? He felt humiliated. Why have many Russians supported Vladimir Putin despite their country’s stagnant economy? At least partly because they believe he has restored Russia’s status as a major player on the world stage. Why did millions of voters who supported Barack Obama in 2012 turn to Donald Trump in 2016? Many said that they felt ignored, as though their country was moving on without them.

  Both as an activist and as a government official, I tried to stay focused on the real-world “scoreboard”—what had actually been accomplished as a result of my efforts. I would catch myself feeling satisfied by a powerful speech I had made at the UN, or a compelling argument I had put before the President. I would then excoriate myself for measuring the wrong thing. “It’s not inputs that matter,” I would hear in my head. “It’s outcomes.”

  But looking back, I now see all that the scoreboard could not capture: The relief of a father who has been reunited with his son, newly free of a deadly disease. The look on a government minister’s face as he traverses a rainbow crosswalk. The insistence of diplomats to go on serving their country, even when being ignored and insulted, because they know that our nation is bigger than any one leader. And the persistent attempts—after unforgivable acts—to find the humanity in one’s foe.

  Sometimes, no matter what we did, events unfolded in the wrong direction.

  Sometimes, we moved the needle positively.

  Sometimes, we believed we had no effect whatsoever, and only months or years later learned that our actions offered encouragement to those deciding whether their struggles were worth enduring.

  Sometimes, we saved lives.

  People who care, act, and refuse to give up may not change the world, but they can change many individual worlds.

  June 14th, 2019

  Concord, Massachusetts

  Acknowledgments

  I am profoundly grateful to my colleagues, students, friends, and family members.

  My incomparable agent Sarah Chalfant has been with me from the beginning, and her unflagging enthusiasm for this memoir gave me the fuel I needed to endure. The Wylie Agency’s Rebecca Nagel also provided essential support throughout. Julia Cheiffetz and Lynn Grady, both then at Dey Street Books, were spirited early champions who offered editorial advice that changed my understanding of what the book could be. Kendra Newton, Andrea Molitor, Paula Russell Szafranski, Heidi Richter, Eliza Rosenberry, Ploy Siripant, Liate Stehlik, Ben Steinberg, Carrie Thornton, and my unflappable and deeply humane editor Jessica Sindler each put up with down-to-the-wire edits and brought much-appreciated ambition to publishing this book.

  Special thanks to Noelle Campbell Sharp and the Cill Rialaig Retreat for the unforgettable stay in a restored pre-famine village on Bolus Head in Kerry, Ireland, where the majestic views and epic storms spurred great productivity.

  At Harvard, Kennedy School Dean Doug Elmendorf, Law School Dean John Manning, and former Law School Dean (and close friend) Martha Minow welcomed me back to campus with open arms after my government service. The Radcliffe Institute’s 2017–2018 Perrin Moorhead Grayson and Bruns Grayson Fellowship afforded me with a year to launch this project before returning to full-time teaching. Special thanks to Lizabeth Cohen, then-dean of Radcliffe Institute, fellowship program director (and insatiable omnivore) Judith Vichniac, and writer Zia Haider Rahman.

  Since returning, the Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs has been an ideal home. I am grateful to Graham Allison; Belfer Center Director and former Defense Secretary Ash Carter; and the dynamic duo of Eric Rosenbach and Aditi Kumar. For support with research and fact-checking, I thank Kennedy School scholar Natasha Yefimova-Trilling for her Russian language research; Sinead O’Donovan and Yan Bourke for their inquiries in Ireland; Kennedy School graduate Vafa Ghazavi; Brown University student Erin Brennan-Burke; Harvard College students Amanda Chen, Sunaina Danziger, Hank Sparks, and Matt Keating; Harvard Law School student Elise Baranouski; and joint Harvard Law School and Harvard Kennedy School student Parker White. I am indebted to Marin Stein, a superb manager who became a trusted adviser, and Ellie Hitt, who has been truly indispensable in bringing the book into the world.

  I have been extraordinarily fortunate in the last decade to be able to call upon the wisdom of distinguished senior statesmen and -women, many of them accomplished authors and memoirists in their own right. I thank them for offering such candid, farsighted counsel.

  Many people helped inform or inspire specific parts of the book, while others read particular sections and shared their own memories. I am grateful to Mort Abramowitz, Wa’el Alzayat, Brooke Anderson, Mary-Kate Barry Percival, Rob Berschinski, Josh Black, Tony Blinken, Steven Bourke, John Brennan, Sally Brooks, Adrian Brown, Torrance Brown, Scott Busby, Kurt Campbell, Ben Cohen, Chuck Cohen, Lenore Cohen, Roger Cohen, Kurtis Cooper, Mary DeRosa, Tom Donilon, Jon Favreau, Abe Foxman, Maggie Goodlander, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Sam Kass, John Kerry, Ron Klain, Chris Klein, Harold Koh, Melissa Kroeger, Molly Levinson, Tom Malinowski, Gideon Maltz, Kati Marton, Denis McDonough, Charlie Moore, Katie Moore, Charlotte Morgan, Tom Nides, Toria Nuland, Steve Pomper, Preston Price, Mike Rauhut, Susan Rice, David Rohde, Elizabeth Rubin, Evan Ryan, Michal Safdie, Moshe Safdie, Sia Sanneh, Roberta Seiler, Sarah Sewall, Liz Sherwood-Randall, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Mark Simonoff, Gayle Smith, Halie Soifer, Gene Sperling, Scott Stossel, Colin Thomas-Jensen, Stina Trainor, Tommy Vietor, Miro Weinberger, Jeff Zients, and Frederick Zollo.

  I was daunted by the prospect of a government pre-publication review, but Anne Withers and Tom Lutte at the National Security Council, and Behar Godani, Dan Sanborn, and Anne Barbaro at the State Department managed the process with great efficiency and thoroughness.

  My Irish friends and family members made themselves available to answer questions I should have asked years ago. Particular thanks to Geraldine Barniville, Susan Doody, Colm Gibson, Derry Gibson, Patricia Gibson, Gary Horgan, Karen “Chance of a Lifetime” Horgan, Marie Kirwan, Suzanne O’Reilly, Clare Pippet, and Michele Pippet.

  During my time in the Obama administration, I would often marvel at the privilege of my circumstances, hearing a voice that said, “This. Is. Not. Normal.” I had this same experience every time I heard back from a friend or colleague who made the time to provide detailed comments on entire drafts of this book. Heartfelt thanks to Greg Barker, Daniel Bluestein, Oskar Eustis, Jon Finer, Philip Gordon, Avril Haines, Dina Kawar, Megan Koilparampil, Cullen Murphy, La
ura Pitter, John Prendergast, David Pressman, Kelly Razzouk, Ben Rhodes, John Schumann, Jake Sullivan, Stacy Sullivan, Larry Summers, Elliot Thomson, Mary Valente, Johnny Walsh, Jeremy Weinstein, and Becca Wexler.

  I must also single out several friends who took what must have been weeks away from their lives to provide exhaustive, page-by-page comments and edits. Amy Bach worked late at night to help me avoid minefields I hadn’t even noticed I was approaching. Sharon Dolovich gave the draft a meticulous read, offering granular suggestions while also urging me to address several key contradictions. Lukas Haynes, part of the “Mort Abramowitz’s former interns” family, came like a burst of sunlight back into my life, helping me improve the telling of this story. Anna Husarska made the book one of her missions, marking up each chapter with care. Hillary Schrenell drew on her laser memory and deep empathy to offer vital suggestions. The incomparable Lee Siegel made me aspire to write a memoir that dug far deeper than I was initially prepared to go. Nik Steinberg brought his compassionate heart and exacting disposition to his painstaking review. Michael Rothschild saw a higher purpose when I doubted it, and, from beneath the snow drifts, treated every sentence as if it held the key to world peace. And if Michael’s own deep involvement was not enough, he introduced me to Ida Rothschild, a brilliant line editor, who offered extensive, astute feedback when it mattered most.

  Special thanks to President Barack Obama for taking the time to read and comment on the manuscript, but obviously—well beyond that—for entrusting me with the responsibility of being part of his team. Serving in his administration was the most meaningful professional experience of my life. I am grateful for his leadership—and his friendship.

  Writing a memoir introduces an inevitable selection bias. The events I chose to describe dictate who—among the countless incredible people I worked with in government—makes an appearance in these pages. I hope I have made clear that those I depict embody the talent, patriotism, and dedication of all those who serve a cause larger than themselves. I learned from my colleagues every day, and I only hope I have done some justice to the spirit and integrity of the enterprise.

  My partner in this project has been Adam Siegel, whose title, Research Associate, does not come close to capturing his contribution. Adam has been a ruthless editor, a world-class researcher and literary critic, a fair-minded political analyst, and, in the difficult times, a confidant and an inspiration. He has read every last sentence of every last draft of this book, and he has helped improve it immeasurably. My gratitude is boundless. Any errors of judgment or fact are of course my own.

  Finally, my family. Ellyn Kail, my stepdaughter, and Stephen Power, my brother, offer me daily lessons in what one can achieve through perseverance. María Castro’s arrival in our life was a miracle, and she will forever mean the world to us. Now Ana Reyes, who exudes kindness and joy, brightens our lives beyond words.

  Mum and Eddie supported me as I delved into the past, even knowing the old wounds that this book would open. I am apprehensive about putting this memoir out into the world, but heartened that, by doing so, readers will get acquainted with these two remarkable individuals.

  The book is dedicated to Declan, Rían, and Cass. Declan and Rían, you are hilarious, wise, fun, and big-hearted. Every day I get to hang out with you—and watch you discover the world and care for those around you—is a profound blessing.

  Cass, you changed everything. I like, love, and admire you more each day.

  Thank you for marrying me.

  Notes

  PART ONE

  1. For more on Fred’s remarkable life, see Scott Anderson’s The Man Who Tried to Save the World: The Dangerous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Fred Cuny (New York: Doubleday, 1999).

  2. The 9/11 Commission Report (Washington, DC: National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, 2004), pp. 147, 155.

  3. Stephen Engelberg and Tim Weiner, “Srebrenica: The Days of Slaughter,” New York Times, October 29, 1995, with reporting from Raymond Bonner and Jane Perlez.

  4. The psychologist Paul Slovic and others have conducted studies showing that human compassion actually decreases as the number of victims rises. One example of this “identifiable victim effect” is a study showing that volunteers asked to raise $300,000 to save eight children who are dying of a serious disease were willing to give significantly less than those asked to raise that sum to save a single child. See Paul Slovic, “‘If I look at the mass I will never act’: Psychic numbing and genocide,” Judgment and Decision Making 2, no. 2 (2007): pp. 79–95; and Tehila Kogut and Ilana Ritov, “The ‘Identified Victim’ Effect: An Identified Group, or Just a Single Individual?,” Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 18, no. 3 (2005): 157–167.

  5. Gourevitch later published the book We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories From Rwanda (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1998).

  6. Powell had sent human rights investigators to the same camps along the Sudan-Chad border that John and I had visited, and they had taken testimony from more than a thousand survivors. As evidence of genocide, the investigators combined these eyewitness accounts with satellite images showing that more than four hundred villages had been burned to the ground.

  7. With the strong backing of the Bush administration, Sudanese president Bashir and southern opposition leader John Garang agreed to a peace accord in January of 2005. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) established power and wealth sharing between Khartoum and the South while providing a framework for ending the civil war. Significantly, the CPA mandated that a South Sudanese referendum on independence be held after a period of six years. The Bush administration viewed the CPA as a major achievement, but it did not lead to peace for Darfur. Many activists would come to believe that the administration’s focus on north–south relations—and interest in keeping the North committed to the CPA—ended up limiting its willingness to pressure Khartoum to cease the continuing violence in Darfur.

  8. First proposed by the academics George Kelling and James Wilson in 1982, the “broken windows” theory went on to be adopted as a crime-fighting measure by the New York City Police Department. The theory was roundly criticized, both for being ineffective and for contributing to the over-policing of minority neighborhoods. Kelling and Wilson posited that eliminating minor types of neighborhood disorder (like graffiti, abandoned cars, drinking in public, and buildings with broken windows) would help reduce occurrences of serious crime.

  9. Many scandals broke out as well, which surely impacted public opinion. Soon after I arrived, in September of 2005, Representative Tom Delay stepped down as House majority leader after being indicted for violating campaign finance laws. Representative Duke Cunningham resigned two months later after pleading guilty to taking $2 million in bribes. Representative William Jefferson had his home raided by federal agents, who ended up finding $90,000 in his freezer, given to him in bribes. And in September of 2006, Representative Mark Foley resigned after he was revealed to have sent sexually explicit instant messages to House pages.

  10. Richard Wolffe, Renegade: The Making of a President (New York: Crown Publishers, 2009), pp. 81, 97.

  11. Chris Liddell-Westefeld, “They Said This Day Would Never Come,” Crooked Media, January 3, 2018, https://crooked.com/articles/said-day-never-come/.

  12. Ibid.

  PART TWO

  1. Australia was then the other, although it introduced paid maternity leave in 2011. As a result, the United States is currently the only country among the thirty-six highly developed nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that does not offer paid maternity leave. The Family and Medical Leave Act, passed by Congress in 1993, only guarantees twelve weeks of unpaid leave, and it just applies to companies with more than fifty employees, leaving out parents employed by small businesses.

  2. According to data reported in the 2016 Global Terrorism Index, 93 percent of all terrorist attacks between 1989 and 2014 occurred in count
ries with high incidences of state-sanctioned human rights abuses (defined as extrajudicial killing, torture, and political imprisonment without trial). Relatedly, a UN study that examined why people join terrorist groups like Boko Haram and al-Shabaab found that “state security agency conduct is a direct trigger for recruitment in the final stages of the journey to extremism, with as many as 71 percent of [people who voluntarily joined a terrorist organization] pointing to ‘government action,’ including traumatic incidents involving state security forces, as the immediate reason for joining.” See “Global Terrorism Index 2016,” Institute for Economics and Peace, November 2016, p. 72; and “Journey to Extremism in Africa: Drivers, Incentives and the Tipping Point for Recruitment,” United Nations Development Program, September 2017, p. 88.

  3. Evans would later say he had been inspired to speak out by events surrounding the genocide in Darfur. In a 2015 interview, he recalled, “Colin Powell had come out and said that he thought that what was happening in Darfur in the Sudan did constitute genocide. That was a very brave thing for him to have done . . . His action emboldened me to endeavor not simply to be a bystander on a question of genocide but to stand up and say something about it. Even though it was ninety years in the past, I felt that someone needed to take a stand on this issue and call it what it was.”

  4. Obama’s letter continued: “When State Department instructions are such that an Ambassador must engage in strained reasoning—or even an outright falsehood—that defies a common-sense interpretation of events in order to follow orders, then it is time to revisit the State Department’s policy guidance on that issue.” See Senator Barack Obama letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, July 28, 2006, http://armeniansforobama.com/common/pdf/Obama_letter_to_Rice_July_26_2008.pdf.