Since September 11, no member of his foreign policy team has spent more time with President George W. Bush than Condoleezza Rice. The 47-year-old National Security Adviser is often at Camp David on weekends, ready to discuss the anti-terror campaign and other evolving international crises with her boss as he takes a break from the White House. During the week, she can be found in an office just down the corridor from the Commander-in-Chief's Oval Office.
And while Bush also depends heavily on Vice-President Richard B. Cheney, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for foreign policy advice, the President is said to be most at ease with the political scientist from Birmingham. "She not only spends the most time with the President, but in the pantheon of foreign policy advisers, his comfort level is highest with her," says a source with close ties to the Administration. That makes Rice probably the most influential National Security Adviser since Henry A. Kissinger in the 1970s.
Rice, a Russia specialist and former provost at Stanford University, says September 11 and its aftermath have changed her life. For starters, there's the new intensity of her job. The National Security Council--made up of the President, Vice-President, the Secretaries of Defense, State, and Treasury, and herself--now meets three times a week rather than twice a month. And foreign policy--especially the campaign against terrorism--has become a key mission. "This campaign has put a certain moral clarity back in international politics," she says. "There are things in international relations, in the international community, that simply are not acceptable." Bush's goals, and her own as National Security Adviser, crystallized when the terrorists attacked. The aim, she says, is "to leave the world not just safer...but better."
Just how to do that, of course, is a big question. Rice's job is to present the President with options for implementing foreign policy. She likes to hand him a single recommendation--even if Powell, Rumsfeld, and other advisers start out holding competing views. "I probe to see if there is a consensus," she says. "I don't see any reason to continually take split decisions to the President if that's not necessary." When there is a division of opinion, though, she presents the range of views to Bush.
A key issue now is how the U.S. can capitalize on its decisive victory against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Recently, Bush brought Cheney, Powell, Rumsfeld, and Rice together for a breakfast to discuss "this moment of opportunity," Rice says. As the Administration figures out its next moves, Rice will surely keep wielding influence behind the scenes.
By Stan Crock in Washington
Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.
Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed.
Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video.
To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here.
Copyright 2002 , by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
Printer-Friendly Version
And while Bush also depends heavily on Vice-President Richard B. Cheney, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for foreign policy advice, the President is said to be most at ease with the political scientist from Birmingham. "She not only spends the most time with the President, but in the pantheon of foreign policy advisers, his comfort level is highest with her," says a source with close ties to the Administration. That makes Rice probably the most influential National Security Adviser since Henry A. Kissinger in the 1970s.
