result of incremental changes.” By way of example,
she points to a small initiative she undertook to
try to combat the global rise of despots and the
concurrent democratic recession. She and her team
found 20 female human-rights activists who were
in prison and set about bringing awareness to their
stories. Eventually 16 were released. The number
was tiny but demonstrated “the most powerful
superpower in the history of the world, if it puts its
mind to it, and is respectful of culture and building
coalitions, is able to use its tremendous leverage”
for small but significant acts too.
Power has an almost endearing way of not
quite understanding the effect she’s having on
people. She seems oblivious as to how her height,
blaze of red hair, deep voice, résumé or intensity
might make others feel inferior. After leaving a
prestigious position at Harvard to work in Obama’s
senatorial office, she inadvertently came across a
chat between two colleagues that described her as
attention-seeking and snotty. “I was shocked,” she
says. “I didn’t think of myself as high and mighty.
I hated that that was the impression that I was
leaving.” During our interview, she gets so excited
about a story, she grabs my copy of her book to read
the passage and begins to tear up as she reads her
own words.
Refreshingly, all that diplomatic training has
not made Power self-conscious or killed her taste
for the overshare. She reveals some secrets of an
unnamed ex-boyfriend—and puts just enough in-
formation in the book to make it possible to Google
who he is. And when discussing how Obama’s
upcoming memoir will perform compared to his
wife’s monster best seller, she says wryly, “I’m sure
he hasn’t noticed. He’s not competitive at all.”
In so many ways, Power is like America. She
has impressive resources, a lot of high ideals and
enough belief in herself to go it alone, if necessary.
“I believe that individuals can make a profound dif-
ference,” says Power. “I’ve seen it.” Idealists have
been having a bit of a rough time of it recently, jos-
tled aside by ideologues and realists and autocrats,
but Power is holding fast. Like the U.S., her record is
not unblemished, but she’s still swinging.
‘Putin,
Putin,
Putin!
When is it
going to
be Declan,
Declan,
Declan?’
DECLAN POWER
SUNSTEIN,
Power’s son, on
his mother’s
work-life balance
TONY LUONG FOR TIME
15
