Early life and education

Power was born in Dublin, the daughter of Vera Delaney, a field-hockey international and kidney doctor, and Jim Power, a dentist and piano player. Raised in Ireland until she was nine, Power lived in Castleknock and was schooled in Mount Anville Montessori, Goatstown, Dublin, until her parents emigrated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1979.

She attended Lakeside High School in Atlanta, Georgia, where she was a member of the cross country team and the basketball team. She subsequently graduated from Yale University and from Harvard Law School. In 1993, at age 23, she became a U.S. citizen.

Career

From 1993 to 1996, she worked as a war correspondent, covering the Yugoslav Wars for U.S. News & World Report, The Boston Globe, The Economist, and The New Republic. When she returned to the United States, she attended Harvard Law School, receiving her J.D. in 1999. The following year, she published her first edited and compiled work, Realizing Human Rights: Moving from Inspiration to Impact (edited with Graham Allison). Her first book, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, grew out of a paper she wrote while attending law school. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction and the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize in 2003. This work and related writings received criticism from historian Howard Zinn for downplaying the importance of "unintended" and "collateral" civilian deaths that could be classified as genocidal; and also by Edward S. Herman and Joseph Nevins

From 1998 to 2002, Power served as the Founding Executive Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, where she later served as the Anna Lindh Professor of Practice of Global Leadership and Public Policy.

In 2004, Power was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world that year. In fall 2007, she began writing a regular column for Time.

Power spent 2005-06 working in the office of U.S. Senator Barack Obama as a foreign policy fellow, where she was credited with sparking and directing Obama's interest in the Darfur conflict. She served as a senior foreign policy adviser to Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, but stepped down after referring to Hillary Clinton as "a monster". Power apologized for the remarks made in an interview with The Scotsman in London, and resigned from the campaign shortly thereafter.

The second book she edited and compiled, Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World, was released on February 14, 2008.

The third book she edited and compiled, The Unquiet American: Richard Holbrook in the World (edited with Derek Chollet).

Involvement in 2008 U.S. presidential campaign

Power was an early and outspoken supporter of Barack 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 a Pulitzer Prize and a mean jump shot (ask George Clooney). Now the consummate outsider is working on her inside game: D.C. politics."

In August 2007 Power authored a memo 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 writes: "Barack Obama's judgment is right; the conventional wisdom is wrong. We need a new era of tough, principled and engaged American diplomacy to deal with 21st century challenges."

In February and March 2008, Power began an international book tour to promote her book, Chasing the Flame. Because of her involvement in the Obama campaign, many of the interviews she gave revolved around her and Barack Obama's foreign-policy views, as well as the 2008 campaign.

"Armenians for Obama" uploaded a video of Power to YouTube 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".

Power appeared on BBC's HARDtalk on March 6, stating that Barack Obama's pledge to "have all U.S. combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months" was a "best case scenario" that "he will revisit when he becomes president." 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." 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." 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.

Resignation from the campaign

In a March 6 interview with The 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."

Power apologized for the remarks on the night of the March 6 interview, saying that they "do not reflect my feelings about Sen. 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." The next day, in the wake of reaction to the remarks, she resigned from the Obama campaign. Soon afterward, the Weekly Standard said that it "might have been the most ill-starred book tour since the invention of movable type."

Following her resignation, she also appeared on The 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. Power attended Clinton's swearing-in ceremony on February 2 and collaborated with her during her four-year tenure as Secretary of State.

On staff of the Obama Administration

After the 2008 presidential election, Power returned to Obama's team, becoming a member of the transition team, working for the Department of State.

On staff of the National Security Council (2009—2013)

In January 2009 President Obama appointed Power to the National Security Council Staff, where she served as a Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director running the Office of Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights.

Susan Rice and Power took "the lead against the singling out of Israel at the United Nations. It was Power's call, ultimately, to keep the United States out of Durban II, a 2009 reprise of the 2001 conference on racism in South Africa that devolved into" criticism of Israel.

In February 2013 she left the National Security Council.

Advocate for military intervention in Libya

Samantha Power was one of the Obama administration's proponents of the 2011 military intervention in Libya.

U.S. ambassador to the UN

Nomination

On June 5, 2013, U.S. president Barack Obama announced her nomination as the new United States Ambassador to the United Nations.

Those who supported her while the nomination process was ongoing, were Republican senators including John McCain, Lindsey Graham, former independent (or non-partisan) senator Joseph Lieberman; and others including Dennis Ross, Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Israel's Ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, Professor Dershowitz, Lawyers for Cholera Victims; the Director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, the Director of the Israel Project, Josh Block; the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the President of the Rabbinical Assembly, Gerald Skolnik; the Eastern Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Steven Burg; National Jewish Democratic Council, Alan Dershowitz, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Martin Peretz, and Max Boot.

Her nomination was also opposed: A former U.S. ambassador to the UN John R. Bolton and a former acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Frank Gaffney criticized her for a 2003 article she authored in The New Republic in which Bolton claims she compared the United States to Nazi Germany.

Power was confirmed as UN ambassador by the U.S. Senate on August 1, 2013, by a vote of 87 to 10, and was sworn in a day later by the Vice President.

Views on Israel

Some individuals have accused Power of being hostile towards Israel, largely on the basis of statements she made in a 2002 interview with Harry Kreisler. When asked what advice she would give to the president if either the Israelis or Palestinians looked "like they might be moving toward 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 on unwilling parties," and "the lesser of evils." She clarified that remark on several occasions, including in an interview with Haaretz correspondent Shmuel Rosner in August 2008.

Views on projecting military power to prevent human rights abuse

Her advocacy of humanitarian intervention has been criticized for being tendentious and militaristic, for answering a "problem from hell" with a "solution from hell." Furthermore, 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.

Tenure

Speaking in September 2013, regarding the Syrian Civil War, Power told a news conference that the American intelligence findings “overwhelmingly point to one stark conclusion: The Assad 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." However, Power has herself been criticised by journalist Jeff Jacoby for her lack of commitment to stopping the conflict, writing that she has mostly "acquiesced in the president’s unwillingness to act."

In 2014, speaking on the crisis 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.

In July 2014 Power said the LGBT rights movement is “far from over” in spite of significant progress in this country. “There are some parts of the world where the situation abroad is actually taking a sharp turn for the worse for LGBT individuals,” she said during a forum at Hunter College commemorating the 45th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. Power noted that homosexuality remains criminalized in nearly 80 countries. She said Brunei would become the eighth country in which those found guilty of consensual same-sex sexual acts face the death penalty if it “continues along its path” of enacting its new penal code. Power highlighted the law that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed in February 2014 that imposes a life sentence upon anyone found guilty of repeated same-sex sexual acts. She also noted Russia and Nigeria as among the other countries in which anti-LGBT statutes have come into effect over the last year. “Unfortunately, Uganda’s anti-gay legislation is not an outlier,” said Power. “Nor is the climate of intolerance and abuse that it has fostered.” Power spoke at the forum a week after the Obama administration announced travel bans against Ugandan officials who are responsible for anti-LGBT human rights abuses. Her speech also coincided with the first anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act.

In 2015 Power described defence cuts planned by Britain and other European countries as “very concerning” given the scale of challenges currently facing the world. Power flew to Brussels to urge European nations to abide by a pledge to devote a minimum of two per cent of their national budget to defence. In a speech in Brussels, Mrs Power did not single Britain out by name, but expressed concern that current spending by European nations on defence already risked being insufficient at a time when the world was facing such “diffuse” challenges as the Ebola crisis in west Africa and the threat from the Islamic State of the Levant. (ISIL)

Power has faced criticism for her silence on Obama's failure to recognize the Armenian Genocide, especially after its 100th anniversary in 2015. She has refused to comment on the issue.

In an unusual break from the Obama administration’s de facto policy of not discussing details of the emerging nuclear agreement with Iran, Power vowed that any sanctions relief provided to Iran could be reinstated without unanimous support from the UN Security Council. “We will retain the ability to snap back multilateral sanctions architecture back in place, without Russian or Chinese support,” Power told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in June 2015, referring to the two countries most likely to block sanctions against Iran. “While I can’t get into the specifics of the mechanism right now, because we’re at a very delicate stage in the negotiations, and all of this is being worked through to the finest detail, I can say number one: Congress will be briefed as soon as the deal is done, if it gets done,” she continued. “And number two: we will not support a snap-back mechanism or an agreement that includes a snap-back mechanism that leaves us vulnerable.”

Personal life

On July 4, 2008, Power married law professor Cass Sunstein, whom she met while working on the Obama campaign. They were married in the Church of Mary Immaculate, Lohar, Waterville, County Kerry, Ireland. On April 24, 2009, she gave birth to their first child, Declan Power Sunstein. On June 1, 2012, she gave birth to their second child, a daughter, Rían Power Sunstein.

Bibliography

Books

• The Unquiet American: Richard Holbrooke in the World (coeditor with Derek Chollet, 2011) ISBN 1610390784
• Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World (2008) ISBN 1-59420-128-5
• A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide (2002) ISBN 0-06-054164-4
• Realizing Human Rights : Moving from Inspiration to Impact (coeditor, 2000) ISBN 0-312-23494-5

Articles

• "The Enforcer: A Christian Lawyer's Global Crusade," The New Yorker, January 19, 2009
• "Is Humanitarian Intervention Dead?" Slate, September 29, 2008.
• "For Terrorists, a War on Aid Groups," The New York Times, August 19, 2008.
• "The Democrats and National Security," The New York Review of Books, August 14, 2008.
• "Saving Zimbabwe," Time, July 3, 2008.
• "Rethinking Iran," Time Magazine, January 17, 2008.
• "Access Denied," Time Magazine, September 27, 2007.
• "The Void: Why the Movement Needs Help," New Republic, May 15, 2006.
• "Punishing Evildoers," Washington Post, April 23, 2006.
• Abramowitz, Morton, and Power, Samantha. "Democrats: Get Loud, Get Angry" The Los Angeles Times, April 10, 2006.
• "Missions," New Yorker, November 28, 2005.
• "Talk of the Town: Boltonism," New Yorker, March 21, 2005.
• "It's Not Enough to Call It Genocide," Time, October 4, 2004.
• "Abramowitz, Morton, and Power, Samantha. "A Broken System," The Washington Post, September 13, 2004.
• "A Reporter at Large: Dying in Darfur," New Yorker, August 30, 2004.
• "Break Through to Darfur," By John Prendergast and Samantha Power, The Los Angeles Times, June 2, 2004.
• "The Lesson of Hannah Arendt," The New York Review of Books, April 29, 2004.
• "Remember Rwanda, but Take Action in Sudan," The New York Times, April 6, 2004.
• "Unpunishable," The New Republic, January 12, 2004.
• "How To Kill A Country," Atlantic Monthly, December, 2003.
• "The AIDS Rebel," The New Yorker, May 19, 2003.
• "Robbing the Dead," The New York Times, February 23, 2003.
• "Rwanda: The Two Faces of Justice," The New York Review of Books, January 16, 2003.
• "First, Do No Harm," The Los Angeles Times, October 6, 2002.
• "Bystanders to Mass Murder," The Washington Post, April 21, 2002.
• "Genocide and America," The New York Review of Books, March 24, 2002.
• "Witness to Horrors," The Washington Post, February 10, 2002.
• "Bystanders to Genocide," Atlantic Monthly, September, 2001.

White House blog posts

• "U.S. Leadership to Advance Equality for LGBT People Abroad," December 13, 2012.
• "Supporting Human Rights in Burma," November 9, 2012.
• "President Obama Directs New Atrocity Prevention Measures," August 6, 2011.
• "Announcing HumanRights.gov," April 11, 2011.
• "Transparency Gone Global," March 22, 2011.
• "A U.S.-India Partnership on Open Government," November 7, 2010.
• "A Landmark Achievement for Human Rights: The Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Assembly and Association," September 30, 2010.
• "President Obama Meets the Peacekeepers," September 24, 2009.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]