Albright was born in Prague in 1937 to a Czechoslovakian diplomat who fled in 1949 to escape the Communists. The family eventually settled in the United States, and Albright graduated in 1959 from Wellesley College, before she earned a doctorate from Columbia University in 1976. She served on the National Security Council from 1979 to 1981 in the administration of James E. Carter. In 1993, she was appointed ambassador to the United Nations (UN) by President William J. Clinton.

In 1996, Albright became the second secretary of state in the Clinton administration and the first woman appointed to the position. She implemented reforms at the State Department in the face of significant budget cuts and streamlined the agency's bureaucracy. She generally enjoyed good relations with Congress, but was unable to convince the legislature to pay U.S. arrears to the UN or to expand funding for family planning and other social programs of the State Department. In addition, during her tenure, the Senate rejected the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

One of Albright's priorities was North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) expansion, and she secured both domestic and international support for the NATO enlargement to include the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. Russian acquiescence for expansion was secured through the creation of new, joint structures within the alliance. Albright also maintained support for the continuation of economic sanctions against the regime of Saddam Hussein and was one of the leading advocates for air strikes on the Iraqi regime following the 1998 forced removal of UN weapons inspectors. Albright opposed early admission of the People's Republic of China into the World Trade Organization, but endorsed decoupling human rights and trade policy in order to maintain most-favored-nation trade status for Beijing.

Albright quickly emerged as a leading hawk within the administration on hard-line policies toward Serbia over the treatment of ethnic minorities in the former Yugoslavia. She ensured continued congressional support for the deployment of a NATO-led peacekeeping force in Bosnia. Following Serb atrocities against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, Albright garnered support within NATO for military action, even though she was unable to secure a UN resolution that specifically authorized the use of force because of Russian opposition. NATO forces conducted a 77-day air campaign to compel a settlement. She was eventually able to negotiate an agreement for Russian participation in the subsequent peace mission in Kosovo.

Albright was criticized when the United States did not take a more active role in ending the Rwandan genocide. Efforts to promote a settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict languished until the personal intervention of Clinton in a series of summits. Although Albright advocated military action against international terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda following attacks against American interests, she was unable to convince the president to undertake a systematic campaign against the groups. After leaving office, Albright remained active in public affairs and has been a vocal critic of the George W. Bush administration's launch of the Iraq War in 2003.

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