![]() policy that is weak, unsuccessful or wrong, like Syria, Ukraine, Crimea or Yemen (one of this century's worst humanitarian disasters, beginning under the Obama administration, which barely gets a mention in the book). Never forget how much that can matter." It's a great platitude, but her memoir also shows a person can care more and work harder and still get U.S. because we cared more and we worked harder. When they succeeded, Power told the team: "We won. from granting same-sex couples the same benefits as heterosexual couples, Power and the mission worked hard to block Russia. response to the Ebola outbreak in Africa. It ranges from highlighting the plight of female political prisoners through the #Freethe20 campaign to helping mobilize the U.S. (There are a lot of frantic calls, feverish writing, furious diplomacy, etc.). This is Power showing how she tried to make the world better. As she puts it, changing "many individual worlds." She would pick her battles and then she would fight them. She keeps true to her idealistic nature, not by changing the world but by focusing on the changes she can make. She writes she would do a gut check every couple of months: Is President Obama still listening to me? Am I making a difference in other areas? If I left, would it make any difference? Stay and pick your wins where you can? Move to a different office where you don't have to defend a policy you don't agree with? Resign - publicly or privately? policy they do not agree with and cannot change. ![]() One thing most diplomats have to face at some point in their career is what to do when faced with U.S. John McCain to try to get him to lift a hold he had put on a nomination, he harangued her about Syria and yelled at her to resign before hanging up on her. She says that when she would learn about a new massacre, "I'd often closed my office door and prayed for those begging for rescue, appealing also for wisdom as to how I could help." (Sounds a lot like thoughts and prayers.) She even tells a story of how, when she called Arizona Sen. ![]() She tells us that she, and others, did not alter Obama's mind or U.S. Robert Ford, resigned over the Obama administration's Syria policy? She describes the use of chemical weapons in Syria as one of the "most diabolical atrocities carried out since the Rwandan genocide." She tells us she was in favor of a military attack she tells us that she argued for more U.S. Instead, I sit impotent and incapable." So how did that young woman stay when others, like former Amb. She wrote in her journal at the time, "My only regret is that I don't work at the State Department so I can quit to protest policy. ![]() diplomats who resigned in protest over the weak U.S. That book and the questions it posed hang over her memoir and the foreign-policy challenges she addresses, including the Obama administration's Syria policy.Īs a young college graduate, Power read about four U.S. Then, her answer was because American leaders did not want to act. stands idly by in the face of mass atrocities. It caught the eyes of many, including then-Sen. Power - previously a war correspondent who covered the former Yugoslavia - had a quick rise, in part, owing to her Pulitzer Prize-winning book, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. However, the story she tells is much more complicated. Her new memoir, The Education of an Idealist, tries to show how she stayed true to her idealism, her belief that she could a make a difference for the better. Ambassador Samantha Power writes that her motto has been "show, don't tell." Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Education of an Idealist Author Samantha Power ![]()
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