thank you very much it’s an honor to be
here and be among friends and to share
some thoughts about making the world
more peaceful I was inspired in my youth
by Albert Camus in his essay on the myth
of Sisyphus which he began by quoting
the Greek poet Pindar who said do not
aspire to immortal life but exhaust the
limits of the possible and George
Bernard Shaw famously said some see the
world as it is and say why I dream
dreams that never were and say why not
and I set out to exhaust my limits in
the pursuit of peace why not why not
peace let me start off here with a short
quiz how many of you raise children or
grew up with siblings never getting into
fights and disputes with your siblings
or your children did your parents give
you a hand grenades to solve the problem
no why not because it would be stupid
wouldn’t it and what about neighbors you
ever heard of neighbors getting into
disputes with one another yeah it
happens all the time they plant
landmines to mark the borders to keep
hostile neighbors away why not cause it
would be stupid and what about the
business world there we go
corporate
drop bombs on each other and oops there
we go
they drop bombs on each other when they
get mad at each other do they fire
rockets at each other why not
because it would be stupid so if the use
of violence is stupid in our homes and
in our neighborhoods and in the business
world why do we consider it to be
honourable Noble and patriotic at the
nation-state level about war is stupid
and I like to take it from somebody who
knows something about it
general and President Dwight Eisenhower
said I hate war its brutality its
futility its stupidity so for a stupid
why does it persist and I would say
because we simply have not yet developed
the alternatives to the use of violence
at that level but the good news is that
we are doing it we call it peace
building for the first time in human
history think about this for the first
time in human history we are studying
peace we’ve always studied war to figure
out how to win the next one we are now
studying war to figure out how to
prevent the next one that never happened
before in human history it’s happening
now when I went to school fifty years
ago to if I had wanted to study peace I
couldn’t do it because there were no
programs anywhere in the world where you
could study peace conflict resolution
didn’t exist now there are over 200
certified graduate programs in studying
peace and conflict resolution that’s
pretty amazing and we built the
we’ve got books again if I went on
Amazon 50 years ago I would not have
found any books about peace I know
that’s true because Amazon didn’t exist
50 years ago but if it did there would
have been very few now there are nearly
2,000 if you put that term into Amazon
and we’re putting in place the
institutions to make it happen certainly
the United Nations u.s. Institute of
Peace those government related
institutions
but we also have the private sector
nonprofit organizations private citizens
coming together to work for toward for
peace the Alliance for peace building in
G PAC and so on and we measure things
that we value and we are finally a
measuring piece never happened before
the Global Peace Index developed an
analysis of the most peaceful countries
of the world we now rank the most
peaceful countries the world we know who
the most peaceful countries in the world
are and guess what they’re also the most
prosperous and successful peace and
prosperity go hand in hand this nonsense
that war is good for the economy is
absolute rubbish
it is simply not true peace and
prosperity are what go hand in hand we
now know that and because of this
research we now know the drivers of
peace we know what factors that that we
can develop in our societies to enable
them to function in a more peaceful way
that’s pretty darn remarkable nothing
like this ever ever happened before in
human history we’re doing it now it’s a
pretty good deal and it’s working I know
we have the impression that the world is
falling apart it’s not I Got News for
you it’s not in fact the level of
violence going on right now is so small
from a historical perspective that it
doesn’t even show up on the chart
doesn’t even make a blip on the chart
compared with what it was decades ago
and centuries ago think about that
phenomenal progress now that’s not to
say we’ve reached nirvana
we haven’t still dreadful stuff we see
about it on the news and we have a long
ways to go but we are putting in place
the systems and the mechanisms to
resolve these violent conflicts without
resorting to further violence that’s
awfully awfully good news now I know
peace is possible because I’ve had the
opportunity to do something about it I
joined the Peace Corps well I was a
student activist first anti-war activist
back in the 60s proud of it
then join the Peace Corps lived in
Colombia South
America worked in a fishing village we
organized a fishing co-op build a school
and then years later I became president
of the National Peace Corps Association
the organization of returned Peace Corps
volunteers and we started mobilizing
people with that experience to deal with
some of the toughest issues in the world
we got directly involved in the genocide
in Rwanda for example and made a
significant difference then in the
spring of 1999 I got a phone call from
my friend John Garamendi Don had been
Deputy Secretary of Interior in the
Clinton administration he and his wife
Patti had served in Ethiopia in the
Peace Corps
and he called and said chick my friends
are killing each other and we’ve got to
do something about it
I said John I don’t have a clue what we
can do but let’s give it a try war had
so John and I contacted the embassies
and said we would like to help if you
want to stay up if you don’t want us
we’re not going to get involved but if
you want us to help we’ll help so we met
with them and we built a trust
relationship now I had just left the
National Peace Corps Association John
had left his position at the department
here knew but neither of us had
positions of any significance and yet
they welcomed us in and they worked with
us because we listened to them
we built a trust relationship with them
and they knew that our only motivation
was to find peace we were not on
anybody’s side we were Don Ethiopia side
or Eritrea side our only motivation was
trying to help them find a path to peace
we were invited to the capitals of each
country to meet with the heads of state
of the countries and working with the
African Union eventually we got down to
the point where there was one last issue
that had to be resolved and that was the
sequence of the modalities to implement
a ceasefire between the two countries
one side and the other was going to have
to make a concession John and I went to
the office of Gabe merit Abbe have to be
a very close friend of Eritrea president
Issei
and we urged him to consider making that
last concession there was a long pause
and finally he said okay he was willing
to do it I jumped into a cab went
straight to the Ethiopian embassy the
Ambassador was not there but the deputy
chief of mission Fiss AHA Doudna was
there and he welcomed me into his office
immediately we had become good friends I
said let’s go over this one more time
you tell me that if a say us is willing
to make a concession on the sequence of
the modalities the war will be over is
that right yes that’s right but all he
wants is war he’ll never do it
I know how you feel but he just did I
don’t believe you
that if I ever steered you wrong says no
but I can’t believe it I pulled out my
cell phone and said we’ve got the
embassy and speed I will call him right
now
you can’t do that he wouldn’t let me use
my own phone to verify the end of the
war and okay I know the rules but please
tell the Prime Minister what I just told
you few weeks later Brian Minister MELAS
was in Washington he invited us to have
breakfast with him and over breakfast he
said I want you to know the war part of
me I get emotional about this it was 15
he said I want you to know the war is
over now I want to thank you for your
role in making it happen
couple of guys doing what we could do we
were invited to the treaty signing
ceremony in Algiers pretty special
experience and we got a letter from the
Prime Minister thanking us for creating
the momentum and the spirit it made this
historic achievement possible now that
meant an awful lot but far more
important than that was that a couple of
months after this tree signing ceremony
in Algiers I stopped at a kiosk at the
corner of 18th and L to buy a hot dog
the woman in the kiosk was from Eritrea
and so I mentioned to her that I knew
her president is saying superkey and she
kind of stared at me on how many people
they were heard of Eritrea let alone
know the president buy a hot dog here in
Washington says who are you said I’m
chick Don Bock said I know you I know
who you are
you brought peace to my country this was
a hot dog vendor at 18th and L knew
everything we had done she had followed
the news she bound it out and gave me a
big hug and yes you and I have been best
friends ever since that’s what we did it
for was for the people like yes you
for the real people who are the victims
of warfare so I tell that story because
it indicates what private citizens who
care and are willing to put in the time
and effort can do to make a difference
because of that I was given the
opportunity to provide leadership for
the Alliance for peace building the
network of people and organizations that
are dedicated there reducing the
frequency and plaque and and severity of
violent conflicts around the planet
peace builders address the root causes
of violence as well as the proximate
factors that drive societies to resort
to violence and we help develop
alternative ways of resolving the
differences without killing each other I
retired a few years ago Melanie
Greenberg has taken over she has
elevated the organization the peace
building community way beyond anything I
was able to do so proud of her and
and the work that she does and I am also
very confident about the future of this
whole concept of peace building and what
can be done largely because of the young
for example I got to meet about a decade
ago a young lady who was studying here
she’s from Sarajevo studied here at
Hamilton College here in the US and she
has become a well-known writer and
lecturer on and building respect for an
understanding of young Muslim women in
the world and their role in the world as
her husband said of hers we had dinner
night before last
she’s a Muslim feminist and she is she
is changing the world and I am so proud
of her she’s here Yallah proud to have
her as a friend and I get to spend
almost every day working with two of the
most amazing young people in the world a
Mike was part of the uprising in 2011
was arrested five times and tortured and
he went on a hunger strike for 130 days
barely survived to draw attention to the
cause
now Michael and his colleagues didn’t
succeed in the Arab Spring five years
ago six years ago but the spirit and the
concept of it is alive and well and they
will prevail someday you can count on it
I get to work with Michael and and it is
such a privilege and because of people
like him I know that we have a great
future and I get to spend a lot of time
with Viktor o Chen
by the way Viktor and Michael the two
youngest Africans ever nominated for the
Nobel Peace Prize both of them nominated
in their 20
amazing young people Victor was born and
raised in an displaced persons camp in
northern Uganda on one meal a day he was
his family was attacked by Joseph Kony
and the Lord’s Resistance Army and he
lost his brother was tempted to take up
arms and fight back but he said if I do
that that just perpetuates the violence
instead he started to mobilize a youth
movement for peace in the displaced
persons camp at age 12 he did this by
age 30 he had accomplished so much that
Forbes magazine just a year ago listened
the 10 most powerful people in all of
Africa one of the ten victory Chen and
the United Nations has named Victor
their official worldwide ambassador for
peace and justice he’s still in his mid
30s amazing young man so I get to know
and work with these extraordinary young
people Rihanna
Michael and and Victor and they just
represent dozens hundreds thousands of
young people all over the world who are
aware of and embrace the value of
building a more peaceful world because
of that I’m convinced that we are on the
right path that it will indeed happen I
started with the reference to Sisyphus
from canoes book and as you’ll probably
recall Sisyphus was condemned to push a
boulder up a hill order to see it roll
back down to the bottom and we’ve
traditionally interpreted that as a
dreadful punishment Camus reinterpreted
that and said well actually that’s
pretty much the human condition isn’t it
we push the rock up the hill in order to
see it roll back down
but Camus identified the boulder as
being life’s purpose there’s a metaphor
for life’s purpose and he said as long
as we have a purpose as long as they
have a boulder to push we have joined
our lives and for those of us in the
peace building world that Boulder is
called peace and yes we push it up and
yes it rolls back down we don’t always
succeed violence comes up again but we
go back to that Boulder and we put a
shoulder to it and we
push with joy knowing that we are
getting a higher and higher every time
and for that reason I remain confident
that the world is indeed on the right
path that the curve of history is toward
peace and justice that we will never
reach Nirvana will never reach total
peace on earth but we do make it more
peaceful as we continue to believe in
and commit ourselves to doing what it
takes to build a peaceful world we
exhaust the limits for peace why not why
not peace thank you very much [Applause]