received 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. hillary always cared deeply about public policy. when she was in the white house she made her mark through the commitment on the issues that actually mattered 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 u.s. aid more effective around the world helping people everywhere. she has crossed many borders and built so many bridges. in pakistan she shattered myths by meeting with leaders and a broad section of pakistani society. and who can forget the iconic photo of her and kyi a few months ago in myanmar a moving testament to the power of leaders to the power of women who had devoted their life, their energy, their brain life common good of humanity.

that makes history. now let me conclude with one more point, one more quote. president wilson also said one cool judgment is worth a thousand what'sy councils. the think to do is to supply light and not heat. how perfectly this sums up the recipient tonight of the woodrow wilson award madam hillary rodham clinton, monoamie. [ applause ]

>> 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 pred mallic 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 mcclarty. 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 core 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. 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. and i loved the fact that jane was just referencing that 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. and jane joined me last december to launch the women in public service project to mentor emerging women leaders around the world. founded with the seven sisters colleges. jane and i are both proud graduates. she of smith and i of wellesley. and we're including many international 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 and in the trend lines 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 and george schultz with his don't worry be happy song, he actually gave me a little bear that i keep in my office that has one of these buttons when you press it, it sings don't worry, be happy. i figure if it's good enough for george schultz, it's good enough for me. so i was thrilled to see him sharing that with all of you tonight. and you know, the thing about henry kissinger is with that accent you can say anything you think it's really smart and witty. and so he and i have had some of the most amazing conversations, but i'm never quite sure i've understood everything that was being said.

but for me the men and women you saw on screen have become great friends. whether i knew them well like dear madeleine albright or knew them by afar or at events like this, all of them have been extraordinarily helpful to me. i'm very grateful they would come together to be here this evening. i know it's been for me a reunion. i've had a chance to see so many of a lot of my friends and colleagues over the past evening. and i want to make just a few serious points because yovb very, very patient. i think as both jane and christine suggested in their remarks tonight, we're very fortunate to be in the positions we're in in today's world. and we're 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. 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 few in canton can become an emdemocratic in chicago or a protest in knew she sha can reverse brat through latin america through east asia. or when a housing bubble bursts in las vegas it can unsteady markets in london and mumbai. the world has changed. the amount on the velocity of change is breathtaking. citizens and nonactors like

ngos, organizations or kril 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 huh 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 free fall, diplomacy, deemphasized traditional alliances fraying the international system that the united states have helped to build and defend over many decades seemed to be buckling

under the weight of new threats. and so what we've tried to do in the last three plus here's is make sure we shored up and secured america's global leadership. knowing full well that it was going to take more than military solution. 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 powers in the private sector. harnessing market forces to really be part of the solution to some of the strategic problems we face. leading by example and bringing people together on behalf of supporting universal rights and

values. we really were having to rethink how we did business. business in government as well as business in the private sector. now the government we're calling what we're trying to do smart power. at bottom was an effort to integrate diplomacy development and defense and 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 and leon panetta and chairs of the joint chiefs mike mullen and now marty dempsey have really 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're making sure our shoulders, 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 of government approach. and we're also trying to make sure we get our bureaucracies in washington trying to do the same. you know 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 that we were going to have to confront a lot of difficult problems. i'll just quickly 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 they were not either 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. and 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 our european allies. we rearranged with the international atomic energy agency. we convinced the entire security council including russia and china to enact the most onerous sanctions that ever happened and to keep up the pressure. and 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're 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. the fact we returned to the negotiating table makes sleer the choice for iran's leaders. we're also looking for how to operate multidimensional diplomacy at all times. building and holding a coalition to pressure an isolated iran is one example. but there are others as well. our willingness to engage show

good faith. our willingness to listen showed humility. our willingness to hammer out the kinds of solutions that would be acceptable beyond the usual suspects who always are with us is paying off. it's not just with china and russia, but other rising powers like india, turkey, south africa, south korea, indonesia and brazil where sbebsive diplomacy is absolutely essential. aligning our interests with these rising influential nations is not always easy. and in syria we're seeing firsthand how difficult it can be. but it can and has been working. iran is one example. but we're also trying to come together around other global challenges from working with the

imf and others to manage the international economic crisis to securing loose nukes. we're also putting a lot more attention into regional and global institutions that mobilize common action and help to settle disputes peacefully that stand standards and supporting an open free, transparent and fair economic system and having security arrangements that promote stability and trust. because i don't believe that the rise of new powers has to be a threat to american leadership. in fact, the rise of these powers is in part the result of american leadership of the stability and prosperity that we brought to and fostered around the world since the end of world war ii. this is not 1912 when friction

between a declining britain and a rising germany set the stage for global conflict. it's 2012. and a strong america is working with new powers in an international system designed to prevent global conflict. but we have to updid that system. we have to continue to ask yourselves how can we make it work better. and we cannot do it alone. let me turn to a second example. early last year when citizens took to the streets across the mideast and north africa demanding their dignity, their human rights, those protests caught fire and caught most people by surprise. but in libya gadhafi responded with brutal violence and the libyan people and the arab league for the first time

together asked for the international community support. so we did put together a broad coalition led by nato with a mandate from the u.n. security council. think about it, the arab league not only called for action, but members of the arab league participated alongside nato. kwout america's high level diplomacy cajoling, hand holding and occasional arm twisting, that coalition would never have come together or stayed together. and now we're working with new partners to support emerging democracies and to help build credible institutions. i was just in brazil co-chairing the open government partnership an effort by the united states to bring countries in to the fight against corruption, a push

for openness. and i was so proud that libya was represented at that conference and made a speech about the kind of future, democratic future that they are seeking. we all know thatfuture, democratic future that they are seeking. now, we all know that this is a difficult transformation. and we see countries like syria that are trying to hold back the tide of history with brutal, horrible impact on innocent lives, but a situation as complicated as the arab spring demands a multifaceted response. and so we have to marry all of these tools together. old-fashioned shoe leather diplomacy and the use of social media. using every partner that is willing to work with us. and bringing disparate stake holders together. only the united states of america has the resolve, the reach and the resources to do this on a truly global scale.

and that doesn't mean we go it alone. actually, it means the opposite. america cannot and should not shoulder every burden ourselves. as we saw in libya, our european and nato allies remain our partners of first resort, but new partners like those arab nations that flew the air cap and helped with with the maritime interdiction really made a difference. so we have to work on how we keep building those networks and how we give capability and credibility to these coalitions that come up to promote regional stability and security in a lot

of hot spots. and we paid particular attention to the asia pacific and the multilateral organizations there to build a new architecture of institutions that will serve as a bullwark for continuing prosperity and to deal with disputes like the territorial disputes in the south china sea. because after all, the asia pacific region which stretches from the indian ocean all the way to the shores of the americas, is a key driver of global politics and economics and so we are engaging in a whole-hearted way. we are working on new trade agreements, educational exchanges, updated military force posture. we are looking to bring leaders together from across the asia pacific. and just recently last september, in san francisco, we had a gathering for part of the preparation for the asia pacific economic community meeting in hawaii. we talked about something which

i have talked about for a long time, but which is really getting traction now, and that is improves women's access to capital in markets, building women's capacities and skills, supporting women's leaders and skills, it's important, not just because christine and jane and i are women with interests but we know that the more women participate in economies, the more successful those economies will be. so, we're working all the time -- [ applause ] we are working all the time on the full range of issues. you've been very patient tonight and very kind. my friends who bought tables to support the wilson center and to come and be here this evening, and i wanted to just give you a short overview of why we believe that this kind of full engagement on all levels in our

diplomacy and development work is the only way for us to move forward together. so as i look now at the work that the wilson center is doing and will be doing, i'm encouraged and grateful, because there are no doubts in my mind that we need this public/private/not for profit partnership. the government can't do it alone. business can't do it alone. civil society can't do it alone. we need to be sure that we are all on the same side, and in my view, all on the same team. and i was thinking a lot about this, because we're coming up on the anniversary of the raid that killed bin laden. there will be lots and lots, wall-to-wall coverage about it.

it was an incredible moment for me because of the extraordinary personal commitment that i felt. people asked me all the time what was going through your mind on that day? really, what was going through my mind were all the people in new york that i served and represented and what they had gone through, how much they and our country deserve justice. and i thought about how important it was to make sure we did everything we could to protect ourselves from another attack, and certainly thought about those brave navy s.e.a.l.s who went out on that moonless pakistani night, but i also thought about how important it is that we don't just focus on the threats. we don't just focus on the dangers. we have to keep reminding ourselves of the opportunities and the necessity for american leadership.

it's in our dna. it's who we are. everyone in this room already knows so it is a little bit like preaching to the choir, but we have to keep telling that story. i want to end where fred began the evening. i love politics because i think it's the way people resolve problems and issues between them, and it's not just electoral politics that counts. if you've ever been in a church you know about politics. if you've ever been on a faculty, you know about politics. electoral politics, the life blood of our democracy, is something that our country has been doing for longer now than anybody else in the history of the world. and we have to set an example as to how it's done. that doesn't mean we have to always agree with each other because we will not, but it means we have to show what it

means to work together, to compromise. when i go to burma, as i did the end of last year and i go to their new shiny parliament buildings and i meet with these people who are trying to figure out, do they really want to try this thing called democracy? and they ask me, can you come help us know how to have a democracy? i realize that our ultimate strength, as it always has been, rests in our values. who we are. what we represent. we can't ever lose that. so we will need the help and partnership of everyone here. we're grateful for the wilson center, which is a wonderful resource for a lot of the work

we do, but mostly we'll need citizenship to push and hold accountable our leadership regardless of party, regardless of whether it's in government or business, to make sure that we never, ever lose what makes our country so special. when i get off that plane representing the united states, i am so proud and so honored. and i wanted to be sure that whoever is the secretary of state next and next and next for 20, 30, ooh 50, 100 years in the future will always be viewed with the same level of respect and appreciation for that this country starts for, and i need to be sure that all of you share that mission, as well. thank you very much. [ applause ]

secretary of state hillary clinton at the wilson center here in washington last week. going live to new york where republican presidential candidate mitt romney is meeting today with new york city firefighters talking about the death of osama bin laden one year later. he's at engine 54 ladder 5 in manhattan which was named the pride of midtown after it lost 15 men on 9/11. it's more than any other fourhouse in new york city. firehouse in new york city. here's former mayor giuliani. >> good afternoon. i'm very honored that governor romney came to in particular this firehouse on the anniversary of the elimination of osama bin laden. this fire hours is of special importance to me and others in not new york city. the place we had our first press conference right here in this spot. and it's a firehouse that has suffered more than most. not only losing