Samantha Power | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Power in 2023 | |
| 19thAdministrator of the United States Agency for International Development | |
| In office May 3, 2021 – January 20, 2025 | |
| President | Joe Biden |
| Preceded by | Mark Green |
| Succeeded by | Jason Gray (acting) |
| 28thUnited States Ambassador to the United Nations | |
| In office August 5, 2013 – January 20, 2017 | |
| President | Barack Obama |
| Deputy | Rosemary DiCarlo Michele J. Sison |
| Preceded by | Susan Rice |
| Succeeded by | Nikki Haley |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Samantha Jane Power (1970-09-21)September 21, 1970 (age 55) London, England |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | Yale University (BA) Harvard University (JD) |
Samantha Jane Power (born September 21, 1970) is an Irish-American journalist, diplomat, and government official. She was theUnited States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017,[1] and theAdministrator of theUnited States Agency for International Development from 2021 to 2025. Power is a member of theDemocratic Party.
Power began her career as awar correspondent covering theYugoslav Wars before entering academic administration. In 1998, she became the Founding Executive Director of theCarr Center for Human Rights Policy atHarvard Kennedy School, where she later served as the first Anna Lindh Professor of Practice of Global Leadership and Public Policy until 2009. She was a senior adviser to SenatorBarack Obama until March 2008.
Power joined the ObamaState Department transition team in late November 2008. She served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights on theNational Security Council from January 2009 to February 2013.[2] In April 2012, Obama chose her to chair a newly formedAtrocities Prevention Board. AsUnited Nations ambassador, Power's office focused on such issues as United Nations reform,women's rights andLGBT rights,religious freedom andreligious minorities,refugees,human trafficking,human rights, anddemocracy, including in theMiddle East and North Africa,Sudan, andMyanmar. A longtime advocate ofarmed intervention by the United States in opposition to atrocities abroad,[3] she is considered to have been a key figure in the Obama administration in persuading the president tointervene militarily in Libya.[4]
Power is a subject of the 2014 documentaryWatchers of the Sky, which explains the contribution of several notable people, including Power, to the cause ofgenocide prevention. She won aPulitzer Prize in 2003 for her bookA Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, a study of theU.S. foreign policy response togenocide. She was awarded the 2015Barnard Medal of Distinction[5] and the 2016Henry A. Kissinger Prize.[6] Power's research has been criticized by some in thegenocide studies field due to her underlying assumption that the United States was a bystander, as opposed to perpetrator or enabler, of genocide.[7][3] In 2016, she was listed as the 41st-most powerful woman in the world byForbes.[8]
Power was born inLondon,[9][10] the daughter ofIrish parents Vera Delaney,[9] anephrologist and field-hockey international player, and Jim Power, a dentist and piano player.[11][12] Raised inIreland until she was nine, Power lived in the Dublin district ofCastleknock and was schooled inMount Anville Montessori Junior School, Goatstown,Dublin,[13] until her mother separated from her father due to his drinking and immigrated toPittsburgh,Pennsylvania, in 1979.[14][15] She has recalled readingEnid Blyton andNancy Drew mystery novels while accompanying her father to a local pub in Dublin.[16][17] She recalled: "It was not, clearly, an ideal environment for a child. On the other hand, my father was always just a few steps away, and we were very close, and he was very loving and very present, notwithstanding where it was he was being present."[17]
She attendedLakeside High School inAtlanta,Georgia, where she was a member of the cross country team and the basketball team. She subsequently received her B.A. degree in history[18] fromYale University, where she was a member ofAurelian Honor Society and a reporter for theYale Daily News,[19] and herJ.D. degree fromHarvard Law School.[20]
After graduating from Yale, Power worked at theCarnegie Endowment for International Peace as a researcher for Carnegie's then-PresidentMorton Abramowitz. From 1993 to 1996, she worked as awar correspondent, covering theYugoslav Wars forU.S. News & World Report,The Boston Globe,The Economist, andThe New Republic. When she returned to the United States, she attended Harvard Law School, receiving her J.D. in 1999. The following year, her first edited work,Realizing Human Rights: Moving from Inspiration to Impact (edited withGraham Allison) was published. Her first book,A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, grew out of a paper she wrote while attending law school; it helped create the doctrine ofresponsibility to protect.[21] The book won thePulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and theJ. Anthony Lukas Book Prize[22] in 2003. Power's book framed genocide as a problem that the United States was involved in as an onlooker rather than a perpetrator or enabler. She has been a longtime advocate of theuse of armed force by the United States in response to genocide abroad.[3]
In 2004, Power was named byTime magazine asone of the 100 most influential people in the world that year.[23] In fall 2007, she began writing a regular column forTime.[24]
Power spent 2005–06 working in the office of U.S. SenatorBarack Obama as a foreign policy fellow, where she was credited with sparking and directing Obama's interest in theDarfur conflict.[25] She served as a senior foreign policy adviser toObama's 2008 presidential campaign, but resigned during the primaries. In 2009 President Obama appointed her to a position on the National Security Council and in 2013 he appointed her as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, a cabinet-rank position.[26]
Power was an early and outspoken supporter ofBarack Obama. When she joined the Obama campaign as a foreign policy advisor,Men's Vogue described her as a "Harvard brainiac who can boast both aPulitzer Prize and a meanjump shot (askGeorge Clooney). Now the consummate outsider is working on her inside game: D.C. politics."[27]
In August 2007, Power wrote amemo titled "Conventional Washington versus the Change We Need", in which she provided one of the first comprehensive statements of Obama's approach to foreign policy. In the memo, she comments: "Barack Obama's judgment is right; theconventional wisdom is wrong. We need a new era of tough, principled and engaged American diplomacy to deal with 21st-century challenges."[28]
"Armenians for Obama" uploaded a video of Power toYouTube where she referred to Obama's "unshakeable conscientiousness" regarding genocide in general and the Armenian genocide in particular, as well as saying that he would "call a spade a spade, and speak the truth about it".[29]
Power appeared onBBC'sHARDtalk on March 6, stating that Barack Obama's pledge to "have all U.S. combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months"[30] was a "best case scenario" that "he will revisit when he becomes president."[31] Challenged by the host as to whether this contradicted Obama's campaign commitment, she responded, "You can't make a commitment in March 2008 about what circumstances will be like in January 2009. ... He will, of course, not rely on some plan that he's crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. Senator. He will rely upon a plan—an operational plan—that he pulls together in consultation with people who are on the ground to whom he doesn't have daily access now, as a result of not being the president."[32] She concluded by saying that "what we can take seriously is that he will try to get U.S. forces out of Iraq as quickly and responsibly as possible."[31] In February 2009, Obama announced that the U.S. would end combat operations in Iraq by August 31, 2010, and withdraw all U.S. soldiers by the end of 2011. The U.S. formally ended its mission in Iraq on December 15 of that year.[33]
In a March 6, 2008, interview withThe Scotsman, she said:
We fucked up in Ohio. In Ohio, they are obsessed and Hillary is going to town on it, because she knows Ohio's the only place they can win. She is a monster, too—that is off the record—she is stooping to anything ... if you are poor and she is telling you some story about how Obama is going to take your job away, maybe it will be more effective. The amount of deceit she has put forward is really unattractive.[34][35]
Power apologized for the remarks on the night of the March 6 interview, saying that they "do not reflect my feelings about Senator Clinton, whose leadership and public service I have long admired", and telling Irish TV reporter Michael Fisher: "Of course I regret them. I can't even believe they came out of my mouth. ... in every public appearance I've ever made talking about Senator Clinton, I have sung her praises as the leader she has been, the intellect. She's also incredibly warm, funny. ... I wish I could go back in time."[36] The next day, in the wake of reaction to the remarks, she resigned from the Obama campaign.[37] Soon afterward,The Weekly Standard said that it "might have been the most ill-starred book tour since the invention ofmovable type."[38]
Following her resignation, she also appeared onThe Colbert Report on March 17, 2008, saying, "can I just clarify and say, I don't think Hillary Clinton is a monster ... we have three amazing candidates left in the race." When Power later joined the State Department transition team, an official close to the transition said Power had apologized and that her "gesture to bury the hatchet" with Clinton had been well received.[39]
After the2008 presidential election, Power joined president-elect Obama'sState Departmenttransition team.[40]
In January 2009, President Obama appointed Power to theNational Security Council, where she served as a Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights.[41]
In this capacity, Power kept the U.S. out of theDurban Review Conference, the 2009 iteration of the UNWorld Conference against Racism, which in 2001 was criticized for descending into "a festival of Israel bashing."[42]
Within the Obama administration, Power advocated formilitary intervention in Libya during theLibyan Civil War on humanitarian grounds.[43] With then-Secretary of StateHillary Clinton and UN ambassadorSusan Rice, Power lobbied Obama to pursue aUN Security Council resolution authorizing an international coalition force to protect Libyan civilians.[44]
Power left the National Security Council in February 2013.[45]
On June 5, 2013, U.S. PresidentBarack Obama announced her nomination as the newUnited States Ambassador to the United Nations.[46]
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Republican senatorsJohn McCain andLindsey Graham[47][48] backed Power's nomination, as did independent senatorJoseph Lieberman.[49] Power also received support from U.S. diplomatDennis Ross,[43] the national director of theAnti-Defamation LeagueAbraham Foxman,[50]Israel's ambassador to the U.S.Michael Oren,[51] lawyer and commentatorAlan Dershowitz,[52] the director of theInstitute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti,[53] the director of theIsrael Project, theJewish Council for Public Affairs,[54] the President of theRabbinical Assembly,[55] the Eastern Director of theSimon Wiesenthal Center RabbiSteven Burg,[56] theNational Jewish Democratic Council, RabbiShmuley Boteach,[57] publisherMarty Peretz,[58] and military writerMax Boot.[59][60][61]
Her nomination also faced some opposition. Former U.S. ambassador to the UNJohn R. Bolton and a former actingAssistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs,Frank Gaffney, criticized her for a 2003 article she authored inThe New Republic, in which Bolton claims she compared the United States toNazi Germany.[62][63]
Power was confirmed as UN ambassador by theU.S. Senate on August 1, 2013, by a vote of 87 to 10, and was sworn in a day later by theVice President.[64][65]
Power's advocacy of deploying the United States armed forces to combat human rights abuses has been criticized as running contrary to the idea that the main purpose of the military is for national defense.[66][67] Critics said that the military operations she supported in Libya, Syria, and Yemen led to the loss of lives and furthered extremism. Michigan State Professor Shireen Al-Adeimi has said, "These interventions, however, were anything but humanitarian: They led to a sharp increase in the loss of human lives, exacerbated a refugee crisis, enabled extremist groups, and caused an overall exacerbation of already-tenuous civil conflicts".[68] It has been argued that Power's humanitarian idealism faded after she entered the State Department and began associating, both professionally and personally, with hardlinerealists likeHenry Kissinger.[6]
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Chemi Shalev wrote that individuals have described Power as being pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli, on the basis of statements which she made in a 2002 interview withHarry Kreisler.[69] When asked what advice she would give to the president if either the Israelis or thePalestinians looked "like they might be moving towards genocide", Power said that the United States might consider the deployment of a "mammoth protection force" to monitor developments between the Israelis and Palestinians, characterizing it as a regrettable but necessary "imposition of a solution".[70] She clarified that remark on several occasions, including in an interview withHaaretz correspondentShmuel Rosner in August 2008.[71]
In July 2014, Power expressed support for Israel's right to defend itself during the2014 Israel–Gaza conflict.[72]
In December 2016, she expressed support for the Obama administration's refusal to vetoa resolution against Israeli settlements in occupied territories. Power told the 15-memberU.N. Security Council: "Israeli settlement activity interritories occupied in 1967 undermines Israel's security, harms the viability of a negotiated two-state outcome, and erodes prospects for peace and stability in the region."[73]
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Speaking in September 2013, regarding theU.S. Government Assessment of the Syrian Government's Use of Chemical Weapons on August 21, 2013, Power told a news conference that the American intelligence findings "overwhelmingly point to one stark conclusion: TheAssad regime perpetrated an attack." She added, "The actions of the Assad regime are morally reprehensible, and they violate clearly established international norms." Power went on to criticize the failure of the United Nations structure to thwart or prosecute the atrocities committed in the Syrian conflict, which is now well into its third year. She said, "The system devised in 1945 precisely to deal with threats of this nature did not work as it was supposed to." She added, "Even in the wake of the flagrant shattering of the international norm against chemical weapons use, Russia continues to hold the council hostage and shirk its international responsibilities. "What we have learned, what the Syrian people have learned, is that the Security Council the world needs to deal with this crisis is not the Security Council we have."[74] Power has herself, however, been criticized by journalistJeff Jacoby for her lack of commitment to stopping the conflict, who wrote that she has mostly "acquiesced in the president's [Obama's] unwillingness to act."[75]
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In 2014, speaking on thecrisis in Ukraine, Ambassador Power, told reporters that Washington was "gravely disturbed" by reports of Russian military deployments into the Crimea. "The United States calls upon Russia to pull back the military forces that are being built up in the region, to stand down, and to allow the Ukrainian people the opportunity to pursue their own government, create their own destiny and to do so freely without intimidation or fear," she said. Power declined to characterize Russian military actions when asked if they constituted aggression. She called for an independent international mediation mission to be quickly dispatched to Ukraine.[76]
In July 2014, during a forum atHunter College commemorating the 45th anniversary of theStonewall riots, Power said that, in spite of significant progress in the US, theLGBT rights movement was "far from over", noting that "There are some parts of the world where the situation abroad is actually taking a sharp turn for the worse for LGBT individuals." She stated thathomosexuality remains criminalized in nearly 80 countries, thatBrunei was moving towards becoming the eighth country to enactcapital punishment for same-sex sexual acts, and that Russia andNigeria had also instituted anti-LGBT legislation in the last year. Referring to a law signed in February by Ugandan PresidentYoweri Museveni that imposes a life sentence upon anyone found guilty of repeated same-sex sexual acts, she said: "Unfortunately,Uganda's anti-gay legislation is not an outlier. Nor is the climate of intolerance and abuse that it has fostered." This speech occurred on the first anniversary ofthe U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a portion of theDefense of Marriage Act, and a week after the Obama administration announced travel bans against Ugandan officials responsible for anti-LGBT human rights abuses.[77]
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In March 2015, Power described defense cuts planned byEurope and countries such as Britain as "very concerning" in light of the "diffuse" challenges facing the world, such as theEbola crisis in west Africa and the threat from theIslamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). She flew to Brussels to urge European nations to abide by aNATO pledge to devote to defense at least two percent of their national budget, and she suggested that their current spending already risked being insufficient.[78]
Power faced criticism for her silence on Obama's failure to recognize theArmenian genocide, especially after its 100th anniversary in 2015.[79] A long-time advocate for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the United States, Power details her efforts to convince President Obama up until just before his 2015 speech in her memoir.[80] She described the day during which she also gave birth to her son Declan in 2009 right after her failure to change Obama's decision as "an example of loneliness" she experienced at the White House.[81] Power apologized for the Administration's failure on Twitter in 2017.[82]
In June 2015, Power spoke to theU.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee while negotiations were taking place with Iran regarding granting relief of sanctions on the country in return for them scaling back their nuclear program.[83] She told the Committee that the US would retain the ability to reinstate sanctions against Iran without unanimous support from the UN Security Council, though she said she could not provide details until a deal was finalized.[83]
Power supported theSaudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen against theShia Houthis and forces loyal to former PresidentAli Abdullah Saleh.[84]
In 2016, while speaking on the situation in Syria, Power said, "What Russia is sponsoring anddoing is not counter-terrorism, it is barbarism," "Instead of pursuing peace, Russia and Assad make war. Instead of helping get life-saving aid to civilians, Russia and Assad are bombing the humanitarian convoys, hospitals and first responders who are trying desperately to keep people alive," Power said. ASeptember 9 ceasefire deal between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov aimed at putting Syria's peace process back on track effectively collapsed on Monday when an aid convoy was bombed.[85]
Power, in her last major speech in the role, told the international community it must do everything it can to stop what she described as a Russian assault on the world order. Outlining Russian actions such as the annexation of Crimea, the bombing of civilians in Syria, and the hacking of America's election, Power drew a picture of a state whose primary aim is to sow chaos and wreak havoc on the "rules-based" world order that is girded by international law and run in bodies like the United Nations. "Russia's actions are not standing up a new world order, they are tearing down the one that exists, and this is what we are fighting against," she said in a speech at theAtlantic Council on January 17. "Having defeated the forces of fascism and communism, we now confront the forces of authoritarianism and nihilism." Those who argue, as Trump, has, that undoing sanctions against Russia will make the Kremlin more amenable "have it backwards," Power said. "Easing punitive measures ... will only embolden Russia," encourage North Korea and Iran to follow them and send the message that all they need to do is "wait it out," Power argued.[86]
On May 31, 2017, the House Intelligence Committee subpoenaed Power's testimony and relevant records as part of its investigation into theunmasking of Americans whose conversations she obtained from intelligence surveillance.[87]
Her book"A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide won the 2003Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.Barnard College awarded Power its highest award, the 2015 Barnard Medal of Distinction,[5] for, among many things, her bookA Problem from Hell, along with her denunciation of genocide and "hope that vows of 'never again' would truly mean 'never again'". The 2016Henry A. Kissinger Prize was awarded to Ambassador Power[88] at the American Academy in Berlin on June 8, 2016. She was awarded the Ulysses Medal[89] byUniversity College Dublin in November 2017. In 2019, she was selected as the recipient of the 2019 Daniel Patrick Moynihan Prize by theAmerican Academy of Political and Social Science.[90] In 2019, she presented the commencement address at Indiana University, where she received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters (D.H.L.).[91]
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In April 2017, Power was named to a joint faculty appointment atHarvard Law School (HLS) andHarvard Kennedy School. At the Kennedy School, she is affiliated with the Carr Center and the Belfer Center. She serves as a senior member, board member, and director of the new International Peace and Security Project.[92] She is currently co-teaching a Harvard class with her husband,Cass Sunstein, called "Making Change When Change is Hard."[93]
In addition, Power holds the following positions:
In October 2018, in response to theSaudi Arabia's explanation about the death of dissident journalistJamal Khashoggi, Power tweeted that "Shifting from bald-face lies ("#Khashoggi left consulate") to faux condemnation (of a "rogue operation") to claiming the fox will credibly investigate what he did to the hen ... will convince nobody."[97]
In January 2021, President-electJoe Biden nominated Power to head theUnited States Agency for International Development (USAID).[98][99] She was confirmed to the position on April 28 by a vote of 68–26, and sworn in by Vice PresidentKamala Harris on May 3. Power assumed leadership of USAID amidst its efforts to disburse massive amounts of foreign aid during theCOVID-19 pandemic.[100]
Power faced criticism from within her administration for her silence amidstaccusations of genocide in Gaza, given her background as a scholar of the subject.[101][102]
Power's legacy at USAID was threatened after President Donald Trump implemented a near-total freeze on all foreign aid on January 24, 2025.[103][104][105]
On July 4, 2008, Power married law professorCass Sunstein, whom she met while working on theObama campaign.[106] They were married in the Church of Mary Immaculate, Lohar,Waterville, County Kerry, inIreland.[107] On April 24, 2009, she gave birth to their first child, a son.[108] On June 1, 2012, she gave birth to their second child, a daughter. Power is aCatholic.[109]
In it, you shone a bold and discerning light on the atrocities of Cambodia, Iraq, Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo, and Darfur in hope that vows of "never again" would truly mean "never again," and that a regard for human consequences will, someday, matter most.
The book inspired a generation of activists, helping to establish the doctrine of "responsibility to protect," which held that the United States and other wealthy countries had an obligation to defend threatened populations around the world.
Media from Commons
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Data from Wikidata| Diplomatic posts | ||
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| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to the United Nations 2013–2017 | Succeeded by |
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| Preceded by | Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development 2021–2025 | Succeeded by |
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