Madeleine K. Albright - Madeleine K. Albright, principal of the global strategy firm The Albright Group, LLC was the 64th US Secretary of State - the first woman Secretary of State and the highest ranking woman in the history of US government.
Serving as a member of President Clinton's cabinet and the National Security Council for eight years, Secretary Albright was the US permanent representative to the UN from 1993 to 1997.
She is the first Michael and Virginia Mortara Endowed Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service. She chairs the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and also serves on the boards of the New York Stock Exchange and the Aspen Institute.
Her newest book, The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs, was released in May 2006.
Tom Brokaw - Tom Brokaw served as anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. Sole anchor of the program from 1983 through 2004, he had previously been anchor of NBC News' Today from l976-82 and had worked in a series of increasingly prominent assignments for NBC news.
On December 1, 2004, Tom Brokaw, stepped down after 21 years as the anchor and managing editor of "NBC Nightly News". Brokaw will continue with NBC News for the next ten years, reporting and producing long-form documentaries and providing expertise during breaking news events.
Recently, Brokaw has received numerous honors, including the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement award, the Emmy award for Lifetime Achievement and was inducted as a fellow into the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition, he has received the Records of Achievement award from The Foundation for the National Archives; the Association of the U.S. Army honored him with their highest award, the George Catlett Marshall Medal, first ever to a journalist; and he was the recipient of the West Point Sylvanus Thayer award, in recognition of devoted service to bringing exclusive interviews and stories to public attention.
Richard N. Haass - Richard Haass is President of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Until June 2003, Haass was director of policy planning for the U.S. Department of State, where he was a principal adviser to Secretary of State Colin Powell on a broad range of foreign policy concerns.
Amb. Richard C. Holbrooke - Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke was U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs from 1994 through 1996, during which time he led the Bosnian peace talks, which resulted in the Dayton Peace Accords.
Prior to becoming Assistant Secretary of State, he was U.S. Ambassador to Germany. He is currently responsible for business development in Europe and the Far East for Credit Suisse First Boston. He also acts as President Clinton's special envoy to Cyprus, and consults with the White House on foreign policy issues.
Ambassador Holbrooke is a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the Citizens Committee for New York City, and the Economic Club of New York. Prior to assuming his current post, he was a Director of the Council on Foreign Relations, the America-China Society, the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and the International Rescue Committee. He is Chairman of the American Academy in Berlin.
He is co-author of Counsel to the President, the memoirs of Clark Clifford, as well as numerous articles and columns on foreign policy.
Jessica Mathews - Jessica Tuchman Mathews was appointed president of the Endowment in 1997. Her career includes posts in the executive and legislative branches of government, in management and research in the nonprofit arena, and in journalism.
She was a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations from 1993 to 1997 and served as director of the Council's Washington program. While there, she published her seminal 1997 Foreign Affairs article, "Power Shift," chosen by the editors as one of the most influential in the journal's seventy-five years.
From 1982 to 1993, she was founding vice president and director of research of the World Resources Institute, an internationally known center for policy research on environmental and natural-resource management issues.
She served on the editorial board of the Washington Post from 1980 to 1982, covering energy, environment, science, technology, arms control, health, and other issues. Later, she became a weekly columnist for the Washington Post, writing a column that appeared nationwide and in the International Herald Tribune.
From 1977 to 1979, she was director of the Office of Global Issues of the National Security Council, covering nuclear proliferation, conventional arms sales policy, chemical and biological warfare, and human rights. In 1993, she returned to government as deputy to the Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs.
Mathews is a director of Somalogic Inc. and a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Century Foundation, and the Nuclear Threat Initiative. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Philosophical Society, and the Trilateral Commission.
She has previously served on the boards of the Brookings Institution, Radcliffe College, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Surface Transportation Policy Project, and the Joyce Foundation, among others.
Vin Weber - John Vincent (Vin) Weber is a former Republican congressman from Minnesota. He is a member of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) and was one of the signers of the January 26, 1998 PNAC letter sent to US President Bill Clinton.
Currently, Weber is managing partner of the Washington, D.C. branch of the lobbying firm Clark & Weinstock.
Weber also serves as chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy, a private, nonprofit organization designed to strengthen democratic institutions around the world through nongovernmental efforts.
"Enhancing the U.S. Role Around the World" was a program organized with the 2008 Rocky Mountain Roundtable, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver Boettcher Concert Hall- International Leaders Forum
Some the the comments here from Jessica Matthews are particularly interesting; her assessment of the situation of the US rings true, but also run totally contrary to the ground on which Obama is fighting his campaign and (to a lesser degree) the ground on which the entire presidential election is taking place.
