Korbel School Honored to Host Distinguished Alumna Condoleezza Rice on March 2, 2017

The Josef Korbel School was honored to host the Honorable Condoleezza Rice (BA '74, PhD '81, HDR '96) for a visit on March 2, 2017. Dr. Rice was welcomed by Dean Christopher R. Hill, Provost Gregg Kvistad, Board of Trustees Chairman Doug Scrivner and other University community members to the Anna and John J. Sie International Relations Complex.

The visit to the Korbel School was Dr. Rice's first following the completion of the Sie International Relations Complex. Following a tour of the new facility, including a brief visit with students and staff of the school's Frederick S. Pardee Center for International Futures and a demonstration of the technology in the school's crisis simulation room, Dr. Rice and Dean Hill held an on-stage conversation on current foreign affairs in Maglione Hall.

A standing-room-only audience of nearly 400 Korbel School students, faculty, staff and friends of Korbel heard Dr. Rice's thoughts on a range of topics including North Korea's nuclear capabilities; China's economy; how to improve relations with Russia, and Russia's role in ending the war in Syria; the Iran nuclear deal; the European Union without Great Britain; and NATO's role and reputation.

Dr. Rice, who served as the 66th U.S. Secretary of State, also spoke about the U.S. State Department under President Donald J. Trump. "There's a lot of worry about budget cuts and where they will come...you need the diplomatic tools, desperately."

Now a professor at Stanford University, Dr. Rice reflected on the value of her international studies degree. "I'm an academic, still, and I continue to try to improve my understanding of things in a systematic way," she said.

"What the systematic study of international relations helps you to do is when you see a problem, you have a framework for understanding it. Having that framework for understanding it then allows you to look for solutions in a more disciplined way," Dr. Rice said. "It is invaluable when you are in government."

Following her visit to the Korbel School, Dr. Rice received DU's International Achievement Medal at the University's 153rd Founders Celebration.