A photo montage is worth a whole lot of words: For the 1st time in history, the President's national security leadership is about to comprise an equal number of women and men. (photo credit)Yesterday President-Elect Barack Obama announced that he'd seek the Senate's confirmation of the 6 persons above as his key advisors on issues of national and global importance.
Most media attention has been paid to Obama's appointment of his chief rival for the Democratic 
nomination, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) (top row, middle) to be Secretary of State. It's an audacious, inspired choice. On account of both her years in the Senate and her years as 1st Lady, Clinton's been to and met with many of the leaders who're soon to be the object of her diplomatic endeavors. At home, it must be noted, Clinton's immediate (Condoleezza Rice) and recent (Madeleine Albright) predecessors are women. The same may be said of counterparts abroad: today women serve as the Foreign Minister in 24 countries besides the United States.
nomination, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) (top row, middle) to be Secretary of State. It's an audacious, inspired choice. On account of both her years in the Senate and her years as 1st Lady, Clinton's been to and met with many of the leaders who're soon to be the object of her diplomatic endeavors. At home, it must be noted, Clinton's immediate (Condoleezza Rice) and recent (Madeleine Albright) predecessors are women. The same may be said of counterparts abroad: today women serve as the Foreign Minister in 24 countries besides the United States.
Among those slated to join Clinton in the Cabinet is Gov. Janet Napolitano (D-Ariz.) (bottom row, left), tapped to be the new Secretary of Homeland Security. As we've posted, she's also served as U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona and as Arizona's Attorney General. She'll inherit the daunting task of bringing to maturation a department birthed post-9/11 as an amalgamation of agencies in charge of counterterrorism, disaster relief, and border control, among many other bailiwicks.Dr. Susan E. Rice (bottom row, right) is set to become U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, thus heading the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York. Rice will be the 3d American woman to hold the post; the others were Madeleine Albright and Jeane J. Kirkpatrick. And she'll follow a legion of women who've been their country's chief U.N. representative. During the tenure of U.S. President Bill Clinton, Rice served both in the State Department, as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, and at the White House, as the National Security
Council's Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs and as Director for International Organizations and Peacekeeping. As we've posted, she was a key foreign policy advisor to Obama during his campaign. A onetime Rhodes Scholar who earned her Ph.D. in international relations from Oxford University, Rice has also been a Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy and Global Economy and Development Programs at the Brookings Institution. Rounding out the natsec team: Eric Holder (top row, left), nominated to be Attorney General; retired U.S. Marine Corps General Jim Jones (top row, right), to be National Security Advisor; and Dr. Robert Gates (bottom row, center), the subject of another IntLawGrrls post today, slated to remain as Secretary of Defense.
