On Wednesday, April 11, Hamilton College, combining funding from the Sacerdote Great Names and Common Ground programs, hosted Condoleezza Rice, Susan Rice, and Andrea Mitchell. Great Names is supported by the Sacerdote family, while Common Ground is supported by the Pohl family, in honor of the five members of the family who graduated from Hamilton.
Filled to capacity, members of the campus and local community converged on the Margaret Scott Bundy Field House at 7:30 PM for an evening of moderated discussion.
This spring’s speakers were Condoleezza Rice, the 66th United States Secretary of State in President George W. Bush’s administration and Susan Rice, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and the 24th National Security Advisor from 2013–2017 under President Barack Obama. Andrea Mitchell, NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, moderated the event.
In addition to the mainstage discussion, Secretary Rice and Ambassador Rice participated in numerous additional events on campus, including a discussion with students enrolled in Government 418: International Law, taught by President Wippman, and Government 114: International Relations, taught by Henry Platt Bristol Professor of International Affairs Alan Cafruny. Moderator Andrea Mitchell joined the Secretary and the Ambassador for a reception in Wellin Hall and dinner at President Wippman’s home with student leaders, select faculty members, and board members.
In the classroom discussions, the two speakers addressed student questions regarding American drone strikes, President Donald Trump’s recent imposition of steel tariffs, and the use of force in Syria, among other topics.
Andrea Mitchell opened the main event by asking the speakers to present their thoughts on the contemporary crisis in Syria, regarding President Bashar al-Assad’s alleged use of checmical weapons and how the U.S. should respond. Secretary Rice stated that the U.S. had no real leverage in the region, meaning that there is a need to tread carefully. Ambassador Rice lamented that “There is no good answer,” referencing the ineffectiveness of President Trump’s strike last year. “Both our strategies haven’t worked in ending chemical weapons in Syria,” she said.
The speakers’ most profound disagreement came in discussions over the Iran deal. Signed in 2015 by Islamic Republic of Iran and the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Germany, and the European Union, the deal was designed to limit Iran’s nuclear program. Secretary Rice, while enumerating the deal to be deficient — and the arguing that the U.S. could have done better — admitted that she, unlike President Trump, is in favor of maintaining the deal. Ambassador Rice defended the deal, asserting that it would serve to slow Iran’s attempts to become nuclear capable.
Both women addressed issues of race and gender as well. When prompted by a student question, both women indicated that they were, as children, taught, that as black women, they had to “work twice as hard” to be seen on the same level as whites. Both women, however, indicated that they advocated rejecting notions of victimhood, instead imploring individuals to utilize their own agency.
Student Assembly President Nadav Konforty ’20 said: “It was wonderful to see such powerful figures respectfully spar back and forth on something like the Iran Nuclear deal and disagree but also find common ground.” He also added that “this Common Ground event really hit its stride.”
Ben Rhind, the President of the College Democrats agreed with Konforty. “I thought this was a huge improvement over the Common Ground from the Fall,” he said.
“While I wish there had been some discussion around some of the more problematic decisions in each of their pasts, I thought their discussion around current issues was fascinating.”
