i'm jaime harmon, the first president and ceo of the wilson center who hoops to be a woman. [ applause ] and we're delighted to welcome honored guests, friends from congress and the diplomatic corps, secretary clinton and some very special guests. the zacaro family. geraldine ferraro was a mentor to me. a special welcome to you. so i'm about to tell you something that henry kissinger wouldn't. where to begin? the trajectory of hillary clinton's career stuns. i'm pleased to have known her and worked with her throughout much of it. while this is no retirement dinner, hear that, hillary?

no retirement dinner. we honor you for the entire arc of your remarkable chair, during the carter administration, a white house where jim freeh and i served, to u.s. senator of new york and of course, u.s. secretary of state. i was in beijing in 1995 as part of the small congressional delegation for the u.n. congress on women when first lady hillary clinton uttered the iconic rallying cry for female quality. you just heard it in her fill many. that same year saw the formation of the council of women world leaders, the only organization for women who had countries. now it has 47 members and just last year relocated, where else? to the wilson center.

with strong support from secretary clinton and her magical ambassador-at-large for women's issues milan who is here. we are building it into a major platform to showcase women's leadership and mentor emerging women leaders. i spoke personally to all six living secretaries of state who just starred in that charming film. each, as you saw, applauds the extraordinary accomplishments of secretary clinton, but also her humanity and her humor. a couple of personal vignettes. one, most of you know my husband sydney died a few days after our last big washington gala. an early phone call came from hillary, who had lots of time to chat. then came a personal dinner. two. in 2007, one of the wilson

center's stars who is here, was imprisoned in iran for eight months, including 105 days in solitary confinement. a heroic effort to achieve her release occurred, and of course, the efforts of then senator clinton were involved. and secretary clinton just recently recalled the event. few can match secretary clinton's growing schedule, but one such person is celebrated with hillary clinton in "time" magazine's current issue of the 100 most influential people in the world, something mack mclarty mentioned. it lanes me to give well-deserved credit to "newsweek's" rival, but i must.

of course, i'm talking about the first imf director who happens to be a woman, my friend christine lagarde. christine rearranged her travel plans in order to offer tonight's introduction before leaving on yet another foreign trip. not long after i joined the wilson center, christine honored us by making her first public remarks in washington as imf director in a morning speech at the center. in that speech, she credited woodrow wilson for sewing the seeds that underscore the need for bold collective action to achieve global economic stability. surely, woodrow wilson would be proud of her. before that speech, i invited a group of former female colleagues from congress to breakfast with her. i keep a picture of that meeting in my office. there she is.

cowering over the vertically challenged senator barbara mikulski and me. one senator present said something i haven't forgotten. said she, thank you for doing this. we never talk to each other any more. many former colleagues in this room will agree. our current, exquisite congressional dysfunction highlights why the safe political space at the wilson center is so critical. and why it is so critical to salute problem-solvers like secretary clinton and secretary lagarde, from synchronized swimming to strategic networking, christine lagarde's career included managing director of a major international l.a., finance minister of france, head of the world's primary financial

institution, and maybe a little later president of france? she is a big player with big ideas, with courage, insight and humor. at the women in the world summit in new york last month, she observed we might have avoided financial meltdown if lehman brothers had only been lehman sisters. you should applaud that. come on. at the first spring meeting of the imf last week, director lagarde gave a mixed report on the economic climate. she said we are seeing a light recovery blowing in a spring wind, but we are also seeing

some very dark clouds on the horizon. those dark clouds, of course, include massive protests worldwide reflecting a growing disconnect between citizens and their government, grave threats to euro zone stability, subornly high unemployment, skyrocketing energy costs, things like that. well, if the problems facing the world economy are dark clouds, christine lagarde said, funding from imf members, including japan and korea, which i visited earlier this week, is like an umbrella. well, thanks to her fund-raising prowess, that umbrella just added $430 billion. [ applause ] even fred malik can't do that. so what an honor to introduce

this powerhouse and great girlfriend, the first woman in charge of the world's economy, imf director christine lagarde. >> thank you ever so much, jane. it's a lovely, lovely introduction. i know there are a few ambassadors in the room, so i say excellencies, madames, monsieurs,ing it is my great, great privilege, immense privilege to introduce to you tonight secretary of state hillary rodham clinton. madame, i have long been an admirer of yours from afar, but now we both live and work in the

same town washington, d.c., and we both have the same goal, trying to make this world a bit of a better place. and we travel the same journey, but although we've been traveling the same journey, we are a little bit alike. we both are lawyers. we both served our respective government. we both have deep ties to chicago. which might explain our very, very soft and gentle personalities. of course, she was a first lady. i told my husband to get into politics real quick. but what ever happened, i always found secretary clinton, hillary, always a little bit ahead of me, a few steps. i'll give you a couple of

examples. we were both young, political animals in 1973/74. le i was interning for bill cohen and spending most of my time dealing with his post, helps mail from french-speaking constituents north of maine in pitch, daupting pitch, yes, no, for it, against. all i was dealing with these french-speaking constituents in the dark room of the rayburn building, there she was. hillary was in the thick of the action. she was on the case. she was on the impeachment inquiry stuff and advising the hostages committee, let's face it. we both served cabinets in our governments. i was most recently minister of finance for france and hillary, of course, as the film beautifully showed, is still today serving as one of the most

outstanding secretaries of state of the outstanding united states of america. she is always ahead of me. secretary of state, madame clinton, you shattered the glass ceiling like someone else with 18 million votes. i was struggling very hard with zero vote. when i last saw hillary, she was being introduced at the woman of the world's summit in new york. muriel actually handed her an oscar. i can surely say that nobody has ever given me an oscar. although, although, inside job

got the oscar for documentary films. holy cow. that was my last quote in the film. very, very teeny bit. now i thought maybe i can outdo madame secretary of state, so i worked really hard on my twitter account. i even turned into a wao-bo so i have hundreds of thousands of chinese followers. but you know, the tweets from lagarde, forget it. they can't possibly compete with the texts from hillary. i'm sure you've all seen the photo, there she is, hillary, sitting in a military plane with dark glasses on, reading her messages on blackberry surrounded by very tense and anxious men, very cool. very cool.

my favorite text from hillary is the one where rachel maddow asks her, who runs the world? 140 character response? forget it. one response? girls. love it. let's be serious for a second. hillary rodham clinton is not only very intelligent, very witty, very charming and very beautiful woman, she is also a great public servant, a great global leader, a great inspiration to women all over the world. some of you might remember beijing 19950. i do. and a great inspiration to people everywhere in the world. so of course she is the ideal recipient for the woodrow wilson award for public service. we all know president wilson said, and i'm quoting him

carefully, "there is no higher religion than human service. to work for the common good is the greatest creed." hillary clinton devoted her life to the common good. when she was at wellesly, she was the first student to deliver the commencement address and she received a seven-minute ovation. she also excelled at yale law school at a time when women made up only about 15% of the class, at best. she was called a star at yale by a young fellow student called bill. hillary actually had to slow down a bit to be with bill, choosing to take an extra year to graduate. le hillary always cared deeply about public policy. when she was in the white house, she made her mark through the commitment on these issues that

actually matter most, education, health care, children's welfare. she was right. it takes a village. after having remarkably served new york and the country at the senate, look at what vision, what inspiration, what incredible energy she brings to her job. her job? no. her mission as secretary of state. she has made usaid more effective around the world helping people everywhere. she has crossed many borders and built so many bridges. in pakistan, she shattered a few myths by meeting regularly with civil society organizations, youth leaders and a broad section of pakistani society. and who can forget the iconic

photo of her and aung san suu kyi? a few months ago in myanmar, a moving testament to the power of leaders, to the power of movement who devoted their life, their energy, their brain power, their life to public good, to common good of humanity. that grand dame of ladies and gentlemen makes history. president wilson also said, one cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty councils. the thing to do is supply light, not heat. how perfectly this sums up the recipient tonight of the woodrow wilson award, madame hillary rodham clinton, mon ami.

>> oh, my goodness! well, i am incredibly touched

and grateful and a little embarrassed by the extraordinary outpouring of very kind words this evening, starting with fred malik who i greatly appreciate for reminding us that we're all on the same team, namely the american team. and my long-time friend mack mclarty and his wonderful donna, i'm grateful to all of you. i want to thank christine for that introduction, but more than that, for her leadership at the imf for her extraordinary strength and vision in these uncertain economic times. and for her very steady hand as she is trying to help lead us

through them. i also want to thank all the members of congress and the diplomatic corps here tonight. it is very good seeing a lot of my former colleagues getting to sit with my friend susan collins. and of course, i want to, along with all of you, salute our host jane harman, one of our nation's most articulate, thoughtful leaders on foreign policy and national security, and now as president of the wilson center, she is still shaping public debate. [ applause ] and in addition to that, she is advising a lot of us and helping to make sure that the scholarship we need for better informed decisions is being done. she provides insights and

counsel on a great range of issues. i love the fact jane was just reversing under her leadership the wilson center has become the home of the council of world women leaders, the only organization of current and former women heads of state and ministers. they are working together with the state department and others to organize a summit in the united arab emirates on women's leadership in the arab world. jane joined me last december at the state department to launch the women in public service project, to identify, train and mentor emerging women leaders around the world. founded in partnership with the seven sisters colleges. jane and i are both proud graduates, she of smith and i of wellesly. we are including many international and domestic partners.

i think it's exciting that we are working on these kinds of things together, in addition to all of the raft of difficult problems, both those in the headlines, in the trendlines that we confront every single day. i have to say that film was hilarious. i have a feeling that jane was stage managing every bit of it, but i can't wait to see all my predecessors to thank them for participating. george schultz with his "don't worry, be happy" song, he actually gave me a bear that i keep in my office that has one of these buttons. when you press it, it sings, ♪ don't worry, be happy if it's good enough for george schultz, it's good enough for me. i was pleased to see him sharing that with all of you tonight. think about henry kissinger.

with that accent he can say anything and you think it's smart and witty. he and i had some of the most amazing conversations, but i'm never sure i understood everything that was being said. but for me, the men and women you saw on the screen have become great friends, whether i knew them well like i did, of course, with dear madeleine albright or knew them from afar or by reputation at events like this. all of them had been extraordinarily helpful to me. i'm very grateful they would come together to be part of this evening. well, i know it's been, for me, a reunion. i had a chance to see so many of a lot of my friends and colleagues over the past evening. i want to make just a few serious points because you've

been very, very patient. i think as both jane and christine suggested in their remarks tonight, we are very fortunate to be in the positions we're in in today's world. we are very pleased that in our own ways we can be trying to help chart our path through what is a very difficult, dangerous, tumultuous time as the film seemed to suggest. and we're trying to look at economic policy and foreign policy in new ways because the problems really demand that. when you think about it, a flu in cantong can become an epidemic in chicago. when a housing bubble bursts in 2 las vegas, it can unsteady

markets in london and mumbai. the world has changed. the amount and velocity of change is breathtaking. technology and globalization have made our countries and our communities interdependent and interconnected. citizens and nonactors like ngos, corporations or criminal cartels and terrorist networks increasingly are influencing international affairs for good and ill. so we face these complex challenges that are cross cutting, that no one nation can hope or expect to solve alone. so how we operate in this world must obviously change. when i became secretary of state, people were questioning if america was still willing to shoulder leadership.

it's not hard to remember why. two wars, an economy in freefall, diplomacy de-emphasized intradetraditiona alliances fraying. the united states helped to build and defend over many decades seemed to be buckling under the weight of new threats. what we tried to do in the last three plus years is make sure we shored up and secured america's global leadership, knowing full well that it was going to take more than military solutions. we needed to be sure we were using every possible approach, breaking down a lot of the old bureaucratic silos, engaging not just with governments, but with citizens. this new citizen empowerment from the bottom up. finding new partners in the

private sector, harnessing market forces to really be part of the solution to some of the strategic problems we faced. leading by example and bringing people together on behalf of supporting universal rights and values. le we really were having to rethink how we did business. business in government as well as business in the private sector. in the government, we are calling what we are trying to do smart power. at bottom was an effort to integrate diplomacy development and defense. i was so privileged to find allies, not just among my colleagues who were former secretaries of state, but in the pentagon. both secretaries of defense bob gates, leon panetta, chairs of

the joint chiefs, mike mullen and marty dempsey have been advocates for the idea that diplomacy and development could help prevent conflicts and rebuild shattered societies that would in turn lighten the load on our military. so together, we are making sure our soldiers, diplomats and development experts are working more closely together, are listening to each other, are contributing to being part of a all hands on deck, whole government approach. we are trying to make sure we get our bureaucracies in washington trying to do the same. by next january when i will have traveled, i guess, a million miles or more, i will look back on this period as one that has been a great privilege and honor to serve.

but i will also know that we have a lot of work to do. when i came into this office, i knew we would have to confront a lot of difficult problems. i will mention a few. one, iran's nuclear activities. how are we going to confront what was a clear threat? how could we unify the international community so we were not on the sidelines or actively trying to undermine our diplomatic efforts? so what we did was to first decide we had to give diplomacy a real chance. president obama extended an open hand to the iranian people. in our public diplomacy, we used every channel from satellite tv and twitter to old-fashioned snail mail. we cemented our partnership with

european allies, reengaged with the international atomic energy agency, we convinced the entire security council including russia and china to enact the most onerous sanctions that ever had been, and to keep up the pressure. then we added to that through our unilateral sanctions and the eu sanctions, we worked directly with banks and insurance companies to make sure those sanctions were implemented. iran's tankers now sit idle. its oil goes unsold. its currency has collapsed. the window for engagement is still open and we are actively pursuing a diplomatic solution. but we know that we have to continue to demonstrate that we're making progress diplomatically. it's too soon to know how the story will end, but the fact we returned to the negotiating table makes clear the choice for iran