Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice already has a place in history. But there’s a lot of history left for her to make, and she’s out to make it count.

The risks are manifold. The challenges, some might say, insurmountable. Pressing for a Palestinian state and an Arab-Israeli peace. Stability in Iraq. The puzzle of Iran. Strengthening America’s shaky standing in the world.

As a child of the segregated South, Rice has leaped tall hurdles. But much remains in her way, including baggage from her own record in the Bush administration.

This hour, On Point: Condoleezza Rice’s bid for history.

-Jane Clayson

Guests:

Elisabeth Bumiller, Washington reporter for The New York Times and author of “Condoleezza Rice: An American Life.”

Russians went to the polls yesterday and handed Vladimir Putin’s party, United Russia, a landslide victory in the parliamentary elections. It came as no surprise — for weeks, election watchers have pointed to massive voter intimidation.

Putin, as he asserts his “moral authority” to lead Russia, may be an old-style Russian strong-man — but his grip on power is a mix of old and new. And what it means, not just for a resurgent Russia but for global politics, no one knows.

This hour, On Point: Vladimir Putin’s grip on Russia, and Russia’s place in the world.

-Jacki Lyden

Guests:

Arkady Ostrovsky, Moscow correspondent for The Economist.

Dmitry Sidorov, Washington correspondent for Kommersant, a leading Russian newspaper.

Masha Lipman, Editor-in-chief, Pro et Contra Journal, Carnegie Moscow Center, and columnist for The Washington Post.

David Kramer, Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs at the State Department.

You want to know about anti-Americanism in the world? Here’s the unhappy conclusion of a big-time panel of Republican and Democratic heavyweights, out yesterday: “America’s reputation, standing, and influence are at all-time lows, and possibly sinking further.”

Never in our history, says the report, have we, as a nation, been so poorly regarded in the world. And that has consequences. When America tries to lead, who follows? And if America stands too much alone, can it possibly prosper? Can it ever be safe?

This hour, On Point: an American challenge — anti-Americanism.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International and a columnist for Newsweek, co-founder of PostGlobal, an international, collaborative journalism project that looks at how the world sees America.

Amar Bakshi, contibutor of daily postings and videos for Washington Post’s PostGlobal site. He is at the beginning of a 5-month trip through Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, the Phillipines, South Korea, Columbia, Venezuela and Mexico.

Robert Keohane, professor of politics at Princeton University and co-editor of the new book “Anti-Americanisms in World Politics.”

Walter Russell Mead, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of the new book “God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World.” His essay “Relax, America Will Survive George W. Bush” recently appeared in The New Republic.

It is the biggest frontline U.S. ally in President Bush’s war on terror, and today Pakistan is in a state of emergency. Constitution suspended. Elections postponed. Supreme Court chief justice fired. Streets full of police. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of protestors and opponents of Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s military ruler, are under arrest.

Critics call it martial law. Washington has shipped billions to Musharraf since 9/11, and urged him not to take this step. He did it anyway.

Al Qaeda lives in Pakistan. So do nuclear weapons, and many dreams. Now this.

This hour, On Point: what Pakistan’s state of emergency means.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

David Rohde, reporter for The New York Times in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Husain Haqqani, director of the Center for International Relations at Boston University and an advisor to former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.

Adil Najam, professor at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, columnist for The News International, an English-language newspaper in Pakistan, and founding editor of the blog pakistaniat.com.

Anthony Cordesman, expert in national security strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

The news from Turkey, even before last week’s House committee vote on Armenian genocide: U.S. standing with a key ally since the Cold War is in the cellar. Turks, who feel they stood with the U.S. again and again for decades, now say they see the United States as a major threat.

If this relationship collapses — and a top Turkish general says it’s close to that — what will it mean? Just for starters, 74 percent of American air cargo into Iraq goes through Turkey. Seventy-four percent.

This hour, On Point: Yes, it was genocide. But what does it mean if the U.S.-Turkey relationship goes up in flames?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Scott Peterson, correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, reporting from Istanbul.

Steven Cook, expert on Turkish politics and U.S. Middle East policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, author of “Ruling But Not Governing: The Military and Political Development in Egypt, Algeria, and Turkey.”

F. Stephen Larrabee, expert on European security, NATO, and Turkey at the Rand Corporation.

Rep. Brad Sherman, Democratic Congressman from California, a co-sponsor of the Armenian genocide resolution before the House of Representatives.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf won a messy and still legally disputed election over the weekend. Looks like another term for the U.S.-backed strongman. Maybe he’ll take off his military uniform, or maybe not.

Just to add to the confusion, a U.S.-backed rival to Musharraf, Benazir Bhutto, may return now from exile. Meanwhile, a battle in Pakistan’s wild west, where Osama bin Laden may lurk, left 80 dead. And more Afghanistan violence leads back to, well, Pakistan.

America’s stakes there are huge. Democracy is blowing in the wind, but so is chaos.

This hour, On Point: Pakistan’s disputed election, and the indisputable stakes for America.

-Jane Clayson

Guests:

Shahan Mufti, reporter for The Christian Science Monitor.

Adil Najam, professor at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, is a columnist for The News International, an English-language newspaper in Pakistan, and founding editor of the blog “pakistaniat.com”.

Samina Ahmed, South Asia Project Director, International Crisis Group.

Rick Barton, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies , is a former official at the U.S. Agency for International Development and the United Nations.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s trip to New York has turned into a doozy. The city where Fidel Castro called JFK “ignorant,” Yasser Arafat packed a pistol on his hip, and Nikita Khrushchev banged the UN podium with his shoe, has gone after Ahmadinejad with a vengeance.

“Bearded blowhard” said the New York Post. “Petty, cruel dictator” said Columbia University president Lee C. Bollinger — to the face of his invited guest.

Ahmadinejad is delivering some doozies of his own. But behind all the theater, there is a real risk of brutal war.

This hour, On Point: the US, Iran, and Ahmadinejad in New York.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Robin Wright, diplomatic correspondent for The Washington Post.

Richard Bulliet, professor of Middle East history at Columbia University, author of “The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization,” and an organizer of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to the university.

Patrick Clawson, deputy director for research of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and co-author of “Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos.”

Iraq has the world’s third largest proven reserves of oil, and they’re barely tapped. This week, the price of oil reached $82 dollars a barrel — the highest in history. And Alan Greenspan says in his new memoir that, at least for him, the U.S. invasion of Iraq was “largely about oil.”

Iraq’s ocean of oil is a source of endless speculation, maneuver, sectarian tension, war and conflict — inside Iraq and out — over who gets what and how. The oil companies are circling. The world is thirsty.

Up next, On Point: the lowdown on the oil of Iraq, and its endless spillover.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Amy Jaffe, energy expert and fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute.

Flynt Leverett, former senior director for Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council, former Middle East analyst at the State Department and CIA, he’s currently director of the Geopolitics of Energy Initiative at the New America Foundation and author of “Inheriting Syria: Bashar’s Trial by Fire” (2005).

Issam Chalabi, Iraq’s minister of oil from 1987 to 1990.

Nathaniel Kern, president of Foreign Reports, a consulting firm providing political analysis for the oil industry.