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She has been called "the most powerful woman in the world" and "Bush's secret weapon." As an international studies scholar and later provost at Stanford University throughout the '80s and '90s, and now as President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice has drawn both fire and praise for her extraordinary mixture of Southern charm, intellectual tenacity, and no-nonsense leadership.

Her name was inspired by the Italian musical notation con dolcezza, meaning to play "with sweetness." Today, however, it conjures many other meanings: poise, strength, conviction. Rice may be sweet, but she's no pushover.

At 47, she is the stern but cautious driver behind America's foreign policy, the first female and the second African American (after Colin Powell) to serve as national security adviser to the president, and a committed Christian who unabashedly talks about her dependence on God.

Being a "deeply religious person" has helped Rice rise to the challenge of serving a nation that has been shaken to its foundations by terrorism and international conflict. And that has meant turning frequently to prayer—and not the kind laced with a "laundry lists of requests." When she needs "guidance and strength of conviction," says Rice, she often reads Romans 5, "which essentially says, Glory also in tribulation, because tribulation breeds perseverance and perseverance patience, and with patience comes hope. And hope is never disappointed, because of faith in the glory of God."

"When I'm concerned about something, I figure out a plan of action, and then I give it to God," she told Essence magazine earlier this year. "I just ask to be carried through it. God's never failed me yet."

"America will find that she is a wise person," George W. Bush said when he selected Rice in December 2000. "I trust her judgment."

The nation got a quick preview of Rice's polish and charisma when she addressed the Republican National Convention in 2000. "Democracy in America is still a work in progress," she told the convention. "But even with its flaws, this unique American experience provides a shining beacon to peoples who still suffer in places where ethnic difference is a license to kill." But it has been Rice's frequent media appearances since September 11 that have given America an extended glimpse of the woman that President Bush and his father before him have come to embrace as a family member.

Working in the senior George Bush's White House a decade ago, Rice had an impressive stint as a Soviet affairs adviser on the National Security Council staff. These days, she is in front of the cameras and behind the scenes doing something that at times seems impossible in a post-September 11 world—gleaning order from chaos.

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