The Madeleine Albright statue in Pristina

Madeleine Albright (Prague 1937 - Washington, 2022) was a Czech-born American public official who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (1993–97) and who was the first woman to hold the cabinet post of U.S. secretary of state (1997–2001). According to the The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica "after the election of U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton, a Democrat, in 1992, Albright’s political star began to rise, and Clinton named her ambassador to the United Nations in 1993. At the UN she gained a reputation for tough-mindedness as a fierce advocate for American interests, and she promoted an increased role for the United States in UN operations, particularly those with a military component. Her nomination to the position of secretary of state was unanimously confirmed by the Senate in 1997. During her tenure in office, Albright remained a proponent of military intervention and a forceful champion of both democracy and human rights. Notably, in 1999 she pushed for North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) bombings in Yugoslavia to halt the ethnic cleansing of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo by Yugoslav and Serbian forces. The Kosovo conflict, which some came to call Madeleine’s War, ended after 11 weeks of air strikes, when Yugoslavia agreed to NATO’s terms."  President Clinton and Madelein Albright travelled to Pristina in 2019 to help Kosovo celebrate its 20 years of independence and the staute was unveiled during their visit. These photos were taken in July 2025.