Messenger to Moscow

She traveled to Moscow last week to sell the Russians on the Bush Administration's National Missile Defense (NMD) plan, but Kremlin officials remained unswayed by U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice's policy arguments. The Russian public was, however, entirely sold on Rice herself. Although she came bearing the White House's stark message that it intends to forge ahead with a "robust testing and evaluation phase" of NMD, even in possible violation of what it says are the outdated terms of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the visit of the 46-year-old Russia scholar was covered by an indulgent press. The airwaves were full of praise for her "beautiful Russian," which she deployed in a one-on-one meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov. With frequent references to the time Rice spent studying in Soviet-era Leningrad, the trip was portrayed as a homecoming of sorts.

Rice has spent a lifetime impressing people. Raised in segregated Birmingham, Alabama. by teacher parents, she graduated from high school at 15 and university at 19. An accomplished classical pianist and ice skater, she earned a Ph.D. and by 25 was teaching at Stanford. She ascended swiftly through the political science faculty and was eventually named Stanford's provost, a post that carried responsibility for balancing the university's more than $1 billion budget. Her entry to the inner circles of power in Washington came in 1986, when she caught the attention of Brent Scowcroft, National Security Adviser to then President Bush. Soon she was a key player in Bush's dealings with the Soviets, where she stood out for her keen intellect, as well as for the qualities of race, gender and youth that distinguished her from most of her peers.

In the second Bush Administration, Rice remains a standout. It was largely through her facilitation that Bush and Putin agreed while at the G-8 summit in Genoa to discuss cuts in their nuclear stockpiles. A devout Presbyterian who has asked not to be paged while in church, Rice has never married. She devotes her meager spare time to practicing the piano and another favorite pursuit — watching American football. Her professional life revolves around weighty issues, but she wields a sharp sense of humor even in unlikely circumstances. When asked last week what she made of the arrival of North Korea's President in Russia on the very day she met with Putin, she shot back, "I don't think he looked at my itinerary."

Q&A

Q: President Bush has said he thinks Putin has a good soul. What's your impression?
A: I've been in lots of meetings with Russian leaders and they tend to turn into an exchange of monologues. [Putin] is much more conversational. He has a good sense of humor and loves to tell little jokes and stories. He's rather matter-of-fact and systematic in going through tough issues.

Q: What's the Russian view of the ABM Treaty?
A: They still believe it's important. In the language of some of the officials you're beginning to get a sense that they're not so wedded to it, but they don't just want to leave it behind and have nothing in its place.

Q: Do we need a new treaty?
A: We don't believe a new treaty is necessary because we believe treaties of this kind, however useful they might have been, are usually an artifact of an unusually hostile relationship.

Q: Do the Russians ever say "what are you offering us in exchange for all you're asking?"
A: It doesn't come up in exactly that way. I think we've made progress in having them see that the reward is Russia achieving its full potential as a European state. This is not something for us to give to Russia. It's something for Russia to seize on its own, but a good relationship with the U.S. and with European powers is about the only way to get there.

Q: People used to be taken aback by the fact that you're young, a woman and black. Is that still so?
A: I'm not so young any more. I am still female and black, however. It happens less and less. Women are becoming more eminent in these fields than when I was a tiny tot. Also, I'm pretty well known in the field now.