Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

I think that part of this for me has been that when you go to these places, the kind of strategic significance of achieving the goals that are being laid out comes into pretty sharp relief. And it is true that there are a lot of ups and downs. There are days when nothing seems to go right and there are days when you have spikes when something goes very right, like the day of the Iraqi elections, the street protests in Lebanon.

But the goal has to be to keep a fairly even keel and to recognize that big historical changes have a lot of ups and downs ... and that you're just trying to work daily toward putting in place some fundamental pillars for the kind of world that you're trying to leave. We are not going to achieve all that is on the plate. It's not possible in three and a half years. But if the administration has laid the foundation, then successive American administrations with successive American allies will be able to realize these outcomes at a later date.

MR. KESSLER: Just on that, you mentioned the speech in Cairo. Why was that an emotional highlight? Is that because it's setting the stakes or the pillars or --

SECRETARY RICE: Well, because I really believe that it was important to give it, for an American official to give that speech in the heart of the Arab world. And it was -- there was an energy in the crowd and I knew not everybody would like everything about it. I'm an academic. I grew up in a world where debate and controversy and disagreement is the mother's milk of what we do. So I'm not concerned when somebody says, "Well, I didn't like that line in that speech." But there was an energy there and I think a recognition that the United States meant what it had -- what the president had said in his inaugural address.

MS. WRIGHT: A variation on that question. What do you see as your greatest success so far, and not necessarily the greatest failure but the place that you have the most work to do? With a footnote: It's quite striking that you, as a Russia specialist -- Russia seems to be one of the countries where we're less engaged or have had less impact than in some of the other parts of the world.

SECRETARY RICE: First of all, it is way too early for me to start counting successes or chalking up failures.

MS. WRIGHT: So far.

SECRETARY RICE: Well, Robin, I don't think in those terms. I am a political scientist who has spent most of my life trying to understand why big events unfold as they do. And my scope of -- my time scale is just maybe different. I understand --

MS. WRIGHT: But what's the --

SECRETARY RICE: You know, I understand that you have to write on a daily basis so this is difficult. But --

MS. WRIGHT: We're giving you an opportunity to help craft our piece. Anyway, on the issue of Russia, you're deeply engaged in many parts of the world and I realize you're involved in Russia, too. It is just striking that at the moment --

SECRETARY RICE: I think the good thing is actually we're engaging with the Russians on a number of issues. You know, not every country has to just be seen as a target of your policies. Sometimes you actually have partners in your policies. And I speak a lot with the Russians. The Russians are part of the quartet. They've been a very active and constructive member of the quartet in dealing with the Middle East problem. We and the Russians have been engaged with the Europeans on Iran. We've been very engaged with the Russians on nonproliferation policy, including the Russians' agreement to be part of the Proliferation Security Initiative.