Новинки Кондолизы Райс

Чого можуть навчити минулі події, чим вони були і є корисні для розвитку демократії? Чи дійсно індивідуальна свобода відступає нині на другий план? Що зобов’язана давати демократія? Одна з найсильніших, найавторитетніших політиків сучасності ділиться спогадами та порадами, як рухатися до справжньої демократії. Книжка містить аналіз ситуації у світі, думки щодо…

Чого можуть навчити минулі події, чим вони були і є корисні для розвитку демократії? Чи дійсно індивідуальна свобода відступає нині на другий план? Що зобов’язана давати демократія? Одна з найсильніших, найавторитетніших політиків сучасності ділиться спогадами та порадами, як рухатися до справжньої демократії. Книжка містить аналіз ситуації у світі, думки щодо вибору шляху країн, які розвиваються, пояснення політичних процесів недалекого минулого та їхнього впливу на наше майбутнє. Кондоліза Райс висуває ідеї, що ґрунтуються на її досвіді як політика, науковця та громадянки. Це уроки демократії для всіх країн світу, що її потребують, – від Росії, Польщі та України до Кенії, Колумбії та Близького Сходу.
Свобода не втратила своєї привабливості. Але завдання встановлення і підтримки демократичних інститутів для її захисту важке й потребує чимало часу. Поступ рідко буває дорогою в одному напрямку. Авторитарне правління може закінчитися раптово, а встановлення демократичних інститутів – ні.

“Незвичайні звичайні люди” – це мемуари Кондолізи Райс, визначного громадського та політичного діяча, держсекретаря США (2005 – 2009). Авторка описує свою сімейну історію, досвід сегрегованого Півдня США, та власну стрімку кар’єру. Книга розрахована на істориків, політологів, усіх, кого зацікавить запропонована тематика.

Condoleezza Rice has excelled as a diplomat, political scientist, and concert pianist. Her achievements run the gamut from helping to oversee the collapse of communism in Europe and the decline of the Soviet Union, to working to protect the country in the aftermath of 9-11, to becoming only the second woman - and the first black woman ever -- to serve as Secretary of State.

But until she was 25 she never learned to swim.

Not because she wouldn't have loved to, but because when she was a little girl in Birmingham, Alabama, Commissioner of Public Safety Bull Connor decided he'd rather shut down the city's pools than give black citizens access.

Throughout the 1950's, Birmingham's black middle class largely succeeded in insulating their children from the most corrosive effects of racism, providing multiple support systems to ensure the next generation would live better than the last. But by 1963, when Rice was applying herself to her fourth grader's lessons, the situation had grown intolerable. Birmingham was an environment where blacks were expected to keep their head down and do what they were told -- or face violent consequences. That spring two bombs exploded in Rice’s neighborhood amid a series of chilling Klu Klux Klan attacks. Months later, four young girls lost their lives in a particularly vicious bombing.

So how was Rice able to achieve what she ultimately did?

Her father, John, a minister and educator, instilled a love of sports and politics. Her mother, a teacher, developed Condoleezza’s passion for piano and exposed her to the fine arts. From both, Rice learned the value of faith in the face of hardship and the importance of giving back to the community. Her parents’ fierce unwillingness to set limits propelled her to the venerable halls of Stanford University, where she quickly rose through the ranks to become the university’s second-in-command. An expert in Soviet and Eastern European Affairs, she played a leading role in U.S. policy as the Iron Curtain fell and the Soviet Union disintegrated. Less than a decade later, at the apex of the hotly contested 2000 presidential election, she received the exciting news – just shortly before her father’s death – that she would go on to the White House as the first female National Security Advisor.

As comfortable describing lighthearted family moments as she is recalling the poignancy of her mother’s cancer battle and the heady challenge of going toe-to-toe with Soviet leaders, Rice holds nothing back in this remarkably candid telling. This is the story of Condoleezza Rice that has never been told, not that of an ultra-accomplished world leader, but of a little girl – and a young woman -- trying to find her place in a sometimes hostile world and of two exceptional parents, and an extended family and community, that made all the difference.

Officials mingled in the lobby of the Oktyabrskaia Hotel--shaking hands, sipping champagne, signing their names--and Germany was united. In this undramatic fashion, the international community closed the book on the drama of divided Germany. But nothing so momentous could be quite so quiet and uncomplicated, as this volume makes strikingly clear. This is the first book to go behind the scenes through access to still not opened archives in many countries. Germany Unified and Europe Transformed discloses the moves and maneuvers that ended the Cold War division of Europe.

Philip Zelikow and Condoleezza Rice, who served in the White House during these years, have combed a vast number of documents and other sources in German and Russian as well as English. They also interviewed the major actors in the drama--George Bush, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Eduard Shevardnadze, James Baker, Anatoly Chernyayev, Brent Scowcroft, Horst Teltschik, and many others. Their firsthand accounts merge to create a complete, detailed, and powerfully immediate picture of what happened. The book takes us into Gorbachev's world, illuminating why the Soviet leader set such cataclysmic forces in motion in the late 1980s and how these forces outstripped his plans. We follow the tense debates between Soviet and East German officials over whether to crush the first wave of German protesters--and learn that the opening of the Berlin Wall was in fact one of the greatest bureaucratic blunders in human history. The narrative then reveals the battle for the future of East Germany as it took shape between West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and the reform Communist leader, Hans Modrow--East Germany's "little Gorbachev." Zelikow and Rice show how Kohl and George Bush held off the reactions of governments throughout Europe so that Kohl could awaken East Germans to the possibility of reunification on his terms. Then the battle over the future of the NATO alliance began in earnest.

The drama that would change the face of Europe took place largely backstage, and this book lets us in on the strategies and negotiations, the nerve-racking risks, last-minute decisions, and deep deliberations that brought it off. It is the most authoritative depiction of contemporary statecraft to appear in decades.