Rice’s appearance was the latest among dozens of leaders and diplomats to participate in the 60-year-old Ogden Lecture series, which has hosted everyone from His Holiness the Dalai Lama to New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger to heads of state including Jacinda Ardern (New Zealand), Mikhail Gorbachev (Soviet Union) and Theresa May (U.K.). Her visit came six days after Hillary Clinton, Rice's successor as secretary of state, spoke at Brown as part of the Ogden series. Both events were co-presented by Brown 2026, an initiative to observe the U.S. semiquincentennial and the role of research universities in advancing democratic societies, and by the University’s Thomas J. Watson Jr. School of International and Public Affairs, which celebrated its launch during a public event at Brown on Oct. 25.

As one of America’s most prominent experts on Russia, Rice talked about the finer points of dealing with a leader like Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

“You couldn't let him intimidate you,” she said. “I know you had my friend Hillary Clinton here, and she would tell you the same thing: He had two speeds — oppress and intimidate.”

Rice said she didn’t hesitate to use a natural advantage in combating Putin’s intimidation tactics. “In heels, I’m 5’10” or so. He’s not.”

On the ongoing conflict in Gaza, Rice said that given the recent peace agreement, “for the first time in a long time, we have a chance,” but the Israelis and Palestinians must both take steps to reach a lasting peace. On the Palestinian side, Rice said, there needs to be a political authority able to “take responsibility for Palestinian affairs.” On the Israeli side, there needs to be an acknowledgement of the potential for Palestinian statehood. 

“We need Bibi Netanyahu to do one thing: Bibi Netanyahu needs to say the words ‘Palestinian state,” Rice said. 

She noted the need for compassion as the U.S. grapples with a set of complex global conflicts. 

“I am a big believer that if you're the American Secretary of State, you walk into a room and you have the American military on one shoulder and you have the American economy on the other,” she said. “But if you can have compassion as well, and say, ‘This is the most powerful country on the face of the Earth. But it’s also the most compassionate, and we care what happens to your people — that’s extremely effective.”

The role of universities and students in preserving democracy

As an educator who currently directs the Hoover Institution, a public policy think tank at Stanford University, and served previously as Stanford’s provost, Rice also discussed the role of universities — and students — in preserving American democracy. 

During her conversation with Paxson and in an earlier meeting with Watson School students, she urged students not to shun public service, calling upon them to work from within the existing political system to make lasting change. A Birmingham, Alabama, native, Rice recalled the work of Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP during the civil rights movement, when the organization worked to find precedent-setting cases to bring to federal courts and ultimately to the Supreme Court. 

“They were actually using the institutions — [and] the Constitution — to say, ‘We don't need America to be something else; we just need it to be what it says it is,’” Rice said. “I think sometimes when we think about hard problems in our country, we don't realize that we’ve got public action like the marches and the activism, but we've also got institutions and we've got a political system that, as Americans, we have to use to get change.”

Rice also stressed the importance of providing federal funds to support research at that nation’s universities. While industry plays an important role in scaling up technologies, she said, universities remain critical sources of innovation that will help the U.S. keep pace in AI and other developing technologies. 

“You won't find anybody who's more capitalist than I am, but I don't want all of innovation to be in commercial entities,” Rice said. “I still want to preserve in the university the ability of somebody to wake up and say, ‘I wonder why that does that,’ to get a federally funded research grant… and somewhere down the road, to do something incredible. I just hope we don't undermine our own considerable capacity.”

Thinking back to her work with Korbel at the University of Denver, Rice emphasized the importance of mentors, urging students to find people who will do for them what her professor did for her and “earn” their mentorship.

“We have a conceit that your mentors and your role models have to look like you,” Rice said. “Now, if I've been waiting for a Black female Soviet specialist mentor, I'd still be waiting. Sometimes, you’ll be the first. And so find your mentors in people who simply will advocate for you, and see things in you that you don't see in yourself.”

When Paxson read an audience question asking Rice which of her roles in life she found the most challenging — being secretary of state or being an academic leaders at a university — Rice recounted a conversation she had with Stanford’s president Gerhard Casper shortly after he asked her to be provost. Rice was worried that she lacked the academic experience for the job. 

“[Casper] said, ‘Well, you just managed U.S.-Soviet relations,’” Rice recalled. “I said, ‘Yeah, but Gorbachev didn’t have tenure.”