Cartering to peace

The shine on the award of this year8217;s Nobel Peace Prize to former US president Jimmy Carter was somewhat dimmed because the Nobel Prize...

The shine on the award of this year8217;s Nobel Peace Prize to former US president Jimmy Carter was somewhat dimmed because the Nobel Prize Committee chairman, Gunnar Berge, went beyond accepted norms to imply that the award had been given as a deliberate snub to President George W. Bush, presumably for the latter8217;s warlike postures and policies. But it is common knowledge that Jimmy Carter has worked across the world, with his 8216;8216;decades of untiring efforts to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts8230;8217;8217; as the citation says. He worked hard to promote dialogue between adversaries and help in mutual accommodation to resolve conflicts with a personal zeal that could only come from an individual like him. The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who shared last year8217;s award with the UN, summed it up by a simple assertion, 8216;8216;He deserved it.8217;8217;

Carter is the third US president to be awarded the Nobel Prize since it was instituted a hundred years ago; and the first during the past more than eight decades. He was considered for the award in 1978, while he was still the president. But that was the year when the Cold War erupted into a fresh intensity, later to be referred to as the Second Cold War. India8217;s own experience with him as US president would be recalled by many as one when nuclear non-proliferation laws to target India were brought on the statute book in the United States. But this was also the time when the US administration tried hard to stop Pakistan from going nuclear; a policy that became a casualty within months due to Cold War strategies adopted by the successor administration.

As an elder statesman, Carter has helped to advance the cause of democracy and human rights to greater public and official consciousness among the international community. His endeavours have covered areas as far apart as the battle against tropical diseases to promoting economic and social development which have brought him praise far greater than the adulation he got as the president of the United States. Very often his acts have been an embarrassment to the administration in power in Washington 8212; as for instance his recent visit to Castro8217;s Cuba. But that has not deterred him from pursuing a path that would help find greater understanding among people and governments otherwise locked in their antagonisms.