On February 1, Hillary Clinton completes her tenure as the 67th U.S. secretary of state. She leaves the post with sky-high approval ratings and, according to President Barack Obama, major credit for restoring the United States' image and frayed alliances. RFE/RL looks back at Clinton's four years of crisscrossing the globe, during which she visited a record 112 countries and traveled nearly 1.6 million kilometers. (14 PHOTOS)
Retrospective: Hillary Clinton's Tenure As Secretary Of State
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Hillary Clinton (left) is joined by her husband, former U.S. President Bill Clinton (center), and daughter, Chelsea Clinton (right), as she is ceremonially sworn in as secretary of state at the State Department in Washington on February 2, 2009.
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Hillary Clinton accepted the position as President Barack Obama's (left) secretary of state after losing out to him as the Democratic Party's candidate for president in 2008.
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Hillary Clinton says of her four years as secretary of state: "I think we have to go back to my beginning in January of 2009 to remember how poorly perceived the United States was, how badly damaged our reputation was, how our leadership was in question, how the economic crisis had really shaken people’s confidence in our government, our economic system, our country. Part of my job in the very beginning was to get around the world and restore confidence in American leadership."
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Hillary Clinton stands with her daughter Chelsea (left) as she prepares to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during her confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington to become secretary of state in January 2009.
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Hillary Clinton was the third woman to be the U.S. secretary of state after Madeleine Albright (left), pictured here in the White House in November 2000, blazed the trail under President Bill Clinton from 1996 to 2000.
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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pauses to put on lipstick while talking with Turkish President Abdullah Gul (right) at the start of a United Nations Security Council meeting at the UN headquarters in New York on September 23, 2010.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel (right) laughs with Secretary of State Clinton during a luncheon held in Merkel's honor at the State Department on June 7, 2011.
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Hillary Clinton gives Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (left) a "high five" at the start of their bilateral meeting at the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates on June 9, 2011.
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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (left) gestures with Libyan soldiers upon her departure from Tripoli, Libya, on October 18, 2011.
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Clinton (left) accepts a Los Angeles Lakers uniform from NBA legend and State Department cultural ambassador Kareem Abdul-Jabbar during their meeting in Washington on January 18, 2012.
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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (left) winks after being handed a pillow for her back while speaking at the Senate Appropriations Committee about the 2013 budget request in Washington on February 28, 2012.
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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (center) is dressed by Emmie Phiri, head of a dairy farmers group, during her visit to Malawi on August 5, 2012. Clinton was the first secretary of state to visit the southeast African state.
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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton poses for a photograph with Nelson Mandela (left), former president of South Africa, at his home in Qunu on August 6, 2012.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) welcomes U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton upon her arrival at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vladivostok, Russia, on September 8, 2012.