The Education of Samantha Powers (March 28 edition, pp.B-17-18)
This is an
interview with Professor Samantha Powers from
Harvard University. The Irish born, 37 year old Professor, made it to the news twice in recent weeks: When she resigned from Barak Obama’s staff after calling Hillary Clinton a Monster, and when it was revealed in the New York Times, that she is dating famous Law Professor Cass Sunstein, who will be moving to Harvard from Chicago. Powers had an extraordinary career. She was a young freelance journalist in the Balkans in the 1990’s. She was shocked by the killings and set to write an analysis of the American position re genocide in the 20th century. The book, a problem from hell, won every possible prize (including the Pulitzer) and made her a celebrity. The
interview is awarded on the occasion of her release of her new book, Chasing the flame, a biography of Viere De Mello, a top UN official that died in Iraq in 1993. Powers thinks that this book is even more important then the previous one, as it covers a broader set of issues, reflecting De Mello’s varied career in conflict resolution in the UN. The interview also reflects the breadth of her own activities from helping Obama, to her Harvard commitments, to her book writing. The last part of the interview is dedicated to some internal tensions in her position as an interventionist liberal: How can she support humanitarian intervention and call for immediate withdrawal from Iraq? Her answer: She calls for US
involvement, not necessarily armed involvement. As for Iraq: The problem was that Washington did not care enough about people. The author is clearly impressed, and ends the piece by saying that regardless of the Hillary comment, Powers’ voice will be heard, and her influence is far from eroding,