Hillary Rodham Clinton

Defining a Role

Still, there is none of the deep familiarity or the tight bonds of their predecessors, Condoleezza Rice and George W. Bush, or James A. Baker and the first President Bush or Henry A. Kissinger and Richard Nixon.

Mrs. Clinton has yet to stake a claim to a core foreign-policy issue, the kind of signature role that would allow her nascent partnership with Mr. Obama to truly become historic.

The Obama administration's foreign-policy ambitions have been marked more by frustrations than fulfillment, from a stubborn Russia and a defiant China to the standoff with Iran over its nuclear program. Mrs. Clinton has rallied support for tougher sanctions against Iran. And the administration's shift to a more confrontational strategy on Iran is tailor-made for Mrs. Clinton, who has been a longtime skeptic of the value of engaging with Tehran. She had once warned that if she were president and Iran attacked Israel, the United States should "totally obliterate" Iran.

The President's Enforcer

Mrs. Clinton has long been seen as fiercely loyal to Israel. But in a deepening conflict with Israel in March 2010, Mrs. Clinton told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel's plans to build housing units in East Jerusalem sent a "deeply negative signal" about Israeli-American relations. The announcement of the housing plan overshadowed a visit there by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who was in Israel to declare American support for its security. Mr. Biden condemned the move, which undermined American-brokered peace talks with the Palestinians. The incident ignited one of the most serious diplomatic rows in years between the United States and Israel. Observers said Mrs. Clinton's blunt language toward Israel is very rare from an American administration, and that she was relaying the anger of Mr. Obama at the annoucement.

On the Middle East, traditionally the heart of the secretary of state's portfolio, Mrs. Clinton has seemed more of an enforcer of Mr. Obama's vision than a policy maker. Day-to-day diplomacy in the region is handled by a special envoy, former Senator George J. Mitchell.

Her Place on the World Stage

For Mrs. Clinton, a successful stint as secretary of state could add to her luster if she decides for another run for the presidency.

But to White House officials who might have worried that Mrs. Clinton would establish a shadow government of sorts in the State Department -- or that she and Bill Clinton would try to compete with Mr. Obama on the world stage -- she has offered reassurance.

She has embraced the president's message of engagement, crisscrossing the globe to mend fences with Russia, mollify Pakistan and cheer up European allies. In China, she soft-pedaled human rights, even though she had championed the cause at the Beijing womens' conference in 1995. She volunteered to defend Mr. Obama when he came under fire from the right for abandoning George W. Bush's plans for missile-defnse systems in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Still, working for a global superstar can be a humbling experience. At the United Nations General Assembly in September 2009, a coming-out party for both Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton, the president attended for four days instead of the customary one or two and dominated the event, leaving Mrs. Clinton on the sidelines.

Mrs. Clinton was born on Oct. 26, 1947, and raised in Park Ridge, Ill. She graduated from Wellesley and holds a J.D. from Yale University. She is a former partner of Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, Ark.

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