The International Advocate for Peace Award 2002
Senator George Mitchell's Acceptance Speech
Presented by Cynthia Devasia:
Editor-in-Chief, Cardozo Online Journal of Conflict Resolution
There are many words one can use when introducing the Honorable George Mitchell. One could refer to him by the various titles he has held: District Judge, U.S. Attorney, Diplomat, or Senator. One could also describe him in terms of his work: negotiator, mediator, author, or public servant. You could even describe him through words commonly used by his friends and colleagues: patient, trustworthy, and well-respected. But, perhaps the most enduring words that capture the essence of George Mitchell reflect his achievements in international diplomacy and dispute resolution. He is truly what can be described as an advocate for peace.
Imagine, if you will, a conflict between communities that have been besieged by centuries of tension and violence. A conflict involving religious, national identity, and economic issues, where one generation growing into adulthood does so knowing only hatred and fear, thinking that reconciliation is impossible. Now imagine you are asked to resolve this conflict. You are not sure if that is possible. You are not sure if there will be a resolution, and even if there is a resolution, you do not know whether it will last. But you do know one thing: you must at least attempt to solve it, you must at least take the first step. That is what Senator Mitchell has done in his illustrious career in international conflict resolution.
In 1995, while serving as President Clinton's appointed Advisor on Economic Initiatives in Ireland, [Senator Mitchell] was asked by both the British and Irish governments to chair the International Commission on Disarmament in Northern Ireland. Under his leadership as Chairman of the Peace Negotiations and guided by the Mitchell Principles of Democracy and Nonviolence, a historic three-strand multilateral agreement was reached by the governments of Ireland, the United Kingdom, and 8 political parties of Northern Ireland. The Good Friday Accord was overwhelmingly endorsed in a referendum by voters on all sides and, for the first time in thirty years, paramilitary organizations declared a cease fire. By itself, the agreement did not guarantee peace and reconciliation. But, in taking a first step, it made the chance for peace and reconciliation a possibility.
In mid-October of 2000, at the request of President Clinton, Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel, and President of the Palestinian Council Yasser Arafat, another first was achieved: Senator Mitchell agreed to serve as chairman of the Sharm el-Sheikh International Fact-Finding Committee. The goal of the committee was to examine the continuing crisis between the Israelis and the Palestinians, emphasizing the strong belief that the violence between the two parties could and must be brought to an end. That initiative was to serve not only as a basis to ending the violence, but to also rebuild confidence and bring the parties together. Earlier this week, Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged that the tenets of the Mitchell Plan, originally issued in May of 2001, still remain a viable basis for resolving the Middle East conflict.
Senator Mitchell's efforts to promote peace and dispute resolution in some of the most contentious conflicts around the world demonstrate characteristics that are the embodiment of a true advocate for peace: understanding, patience, commitment, perseverance, and the ability to handle adversity.
He understood the pangs of the age old conflict in Northern Ireland which had generated significant hatred between communities and an absence of trust. In his 1999 best seller, Making Peace, a personal retrospective of his role as chairman of the negotiations, he noted that if peace were ever to be achieved, there must not only be a decommissioning of the military, but a decommissioning of the mindset.
Senator Mitchell's patience remained steadfast during the peace talks when parties clashed so badly that at times they refused to sit in the same room or let alone talk to each other. Other times the parties grappled over the most preliminary and minutiae of details, once even walking out of the talks in protest of the Senator's chairmanship. Senator Mitchell, though, remained patient and the disaffected parties eventually returned to the table.
His commitment and perseverance shone brightly when he continued to chair the peace talks despite the fact that pessimism permeated the public sentiment in the face of continued violence. Senator Mitchell's conversations with the Irish people often began with compliments on his efforts and ended with despair about their prospects. "This conflict cannot be ended," and "we have been killing each other forever, and we are doomed to go on killing each other forever," were all common sentiments. However, they could not deter a man who once turned down the chance to serve on the Supreme Court so he could finish his work on comprehensive health care legislation. He remained committed over the 22 plus months of negotiations and persevered despite the fact that he suffered great personal losses in his own family during this time period.
Finally, Senator Mitchell is certainly no stranger to handling adversity. After all, he was Senate Majority leader for 6 of his 14 years on Capitol Hill. During his tenure, he gained the unqualified admiration of the American people and enjoyed the elusive honor of bi-partisan respect. He authored and played instrumental roles in the passage of legislation, addressing some of the nation's most pressing domestic concerns, including welfare reform, child care, toxic clean up, and civil rights for Americans with disabilities. His mastery of the art of coalition building at home lay the groundwork for his successful leadership and ability to handle adversity abroad.
In describing Senator Mitchell, it is hard not to mention the character of his convictions that have been the basis of his success in conflict resolution. He is a man who holds a deep conviction that there is no such thing as a conflict that cannot be ended. Since conflict is created by human beings, it can be resolved by human beings. He is a man who teaches that in the making of peace, the first thing you must do is expunge the word failure from your vocabulary. It takes perseverance. It takes patience. He is a man who claims not to have a magic wand, but too many times he has achieved the impossible and has taken that significant first step toward resolving conflict.
For his service in Northern Ireland, the Senator received international praise and numerous honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the highest honor that the U.S. government can bestow upon a civilian), the Philadelphia Liberty Medal, the Truman Institute Peace Prize, the German Peace Prize, the United Nations Peace Prize, and a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Senator Mitchell continues to practice law as Special Counsel in International Affairs for a Washington, D.C. based firm, serves on a number of committees and boards of several corporations, both domestically and abroad, including the Walt Disney and Xerox corporations. He is also Chairman of the International Crisis Group, a non-profit organization dedicated to the prevention of crises in international affairs, and of the Red Cross September 11th Liberty Fund. Senator Mitchell is the author of several books addressing topics such as the Iran-Contra investigation, the threat of the greenhouse effect, and the fall of communism. He is supported in all of his endeavors by his loving wife, Heather, and his son, Michael.
The significance of conflict resolution is more important than ever and the current challenges facing our international community can at times seem daunting and hopeless. Yet in recognizing the vast contributions by peace advocates like Senator Mitchell, whose leadership has proven invaluable to the U.S. and to the world community, we are given hope that international conflict resolution is not just a cause but can be a reality. Therefore, it is with great privilege and honor to present to you the recipient of the Third Annual International Advocate for Peace Award: The Honorable Senator George J. Mitchell.
Senator George Mitchell:
Thank you very much Cynthia for your very kind remarks. Thank you ladies and gentlemen for all being here. This is a great honor for me. I was at one time a federal judge and anyone who has ever served or aspired to the federal judiciary must count among his or her heroes one of the greatest federal jurists in our nation's history, Benjamin Cardozo. So, to be invited to participate in a ceremony at an institution that not only bears his name, but has borne out the legacy of his greatness to achieve a wide-spread reputation for excellence, is for me a great honor. So I am grateful for that.
I am also grateful to share the award today with John Wallach and Seeds of Peace. You heard about them. You know what a wonderful organization it is and what great work John has done, all of which demonstrates his good judgment. But nothing demonstrates his good judgment more than the fact that the camps they run are in Maine. (laughter). It demonstrates that if you want a good setting to try to create good feelings among people, there is no place on earth better than the state of Maine. (laughter and applause).
Cynthia was nice enough to mention my wife Heather. I want to publicly thank her, as I have privately, for her support and understanding. We were married just as I left the Senate. I promised her that I was retiring from public life and would spend all of my time at home now. A week later I left for Northern Ireland. I really did mean it when I said it. It is just that circumstances changed. She was very kind, tolerant, and understanding in the many years that I spent in Northern Ireland and, later, in the Middle East.
Cynthia, that was a wonderful introduction. But, I want all of you to know that was part of the deal under which I came here. I was suffering through a period of low self-esteem (laughter) and was despondent, for reasons I will explain in a moment, when Cynthia called and asked me to come here. I said, "Look I will come if you promise to give me a long, excessive, false introduction." I am reminded of the old political saying: in flattery there can be no excess. So, she kept her part of the bargain.
Now the reason I was feeling so badly is that I had written a book on my experience in Northern Ireland, and I started out on a tour of the country to promote sales of the book. The first of them was here in Manhattan. There was a wonderful event with a huge card. They had a large photograph of me on the stage and the remarks were even more excessive than they were here today. On the way home, my wife said to me "I am really worried." I said, "why is that?" She said, "Well you are leaving tomorrow morning and traveling the country for two to three weeks. Morning, noon and night you are going to hear that kind of talk, and I am worried that you are going to get a swollen head by the time you will return home in a few weeks." I assured her that would not happen. I said, "Look I have been in politics for many years. Since I myself have introduced people thousands of times, I know how false introductions can be." "Besides," I said, "I am really rather modest." When people introduce me and list six or seven bills that I have been responsible for enacting into law, I usually think that they could have either eliminated half of them when they list these honors, or they did not need to mention them all. But, I set out across the country, and boy it was really, really excessive. As you might guess what is coming, I started to believe what was being said in the introductions.
My estimate of my own importance rose rapidly as I traveled westward across the country. I found on the third day that a fellow listed nine bills that I passed. I cited six more that he left out. I started lip singing to the introductions, awards that they had not mentioned and, by the time I got to a reception at an Irish community hall, I was very impressed with myself. I had a difficult time getting my head through the doorway. But, when I got through, the first person I encountered was an elderly woman who rushed up to me very excited, shook my hand vigorously, and said, "I want you to know I am thrilled to meet you." She said, "I have followed your career for years and I drove four hours to come here tonight just to shake your hand, to hear you speak." I said, "Well that's very nice of you, thank you." But, she said, "I must tell you I am very disappointed in one thing." Before I could respond, she said, "You do not look anything like your photographs." She thrust into my hand a large poster and said, "Here, see for yourself." I took the poster and looked at it. There, in the middle, was a huge photograph of Henry Kissinger. (laughter) [I said,] "I am not like the photograph because I am not Henry Kissinger." She said, "You are not! So who are you anyway?" When I told her she said, "Oh, I am crushed. I drove here four hours to meet Henry Kissinger and now all I have got is you!"
The next morning Cynthia called and I said, "Okay, I will come on two conditions: that you do not mention Henry Kissinger, and that you give me a really excessive introduction." I want to say that you are going to have a great career as a lawyer because you really keep your word. Thank you very much.
The theme of this award ceremony is peace. Therefore, I would like to devote the few minutes that I have to this subject. I began by noting to all of the Americans here, which I know roughly is most of the people around the room, that people around the world are inspired by and drawn to what they have come to know as American values. Not easily summarized but certainly they include the primacy of individual liberty, the concept of equal justice under law, and the aspiration of a fair chance for every member of our society. At the same time, as is increasingly evident in recent weeks, many around the world disagree with some of our nation's policies. Others resent what they believe to be American exploitation or indifference to their plight. And there are those for whom the United States is an inevitable target for their rage, simply because of its place in the world. Throughout human history, there have been many dominant military and economic powers. Despite its initial distrust for foreign entanglement and despite the reluctance of our people, the United States, in the last century, has been thrust to the center of the world stage. That role brings with it enormous benefits and many problems. In this era of instant communication, every problem in the world is seen by some as an American problem. Every grievance, no matter how local, whether real or imagined, can be a cause for the resentment of the dominant power.
Recently, I was in South Korea. As you know, there are 37,000 American troops stationed there pursuant to a mutual security treaty between our two countries. The President and the Prime Minister told me that the government and the people of South Korea support the continued presence of American troops in their country. In the past few years, I have met with government and political leaders from every country in Europe, from Ireland to Russia, from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean. I asked each one of them this question: "Now that the Soviet Union no longer exists and Russia has withdrawn its military forces back to its national territory, do you believe the United States should withdraw its military forces back to the continental United States?" Without exception, the answer was an emphatic "no."
I referred earlier to dominant powers. But, I ask you to think back through history and try to recall if there ever was a dominant power with the moral authority that other countries around the world ask for its military forces to be stationed on their soil. Why is that? Obviously, part of that lies in the power itself. But, I am concerned that for many Americans, and especially young people who have never known anything else, power is perceived to be the exclusive basis of American influence in the world. I think there is more to it. While clearly important, power is in fact secondary to our basic ideals. Individual liberty, equal justice, and opportunity for all have been the primary basis of American influence in the world.
I ask you never to forget that the United States was a great nation long before it was a great military or economic power. When there were fewer than four million Americans clinging to the Atlantic seaboard, this was a great nation because it was ennobled by the Declaration of Independence and the adoption of the American Constitution. Those charter documents, especially the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, are the most eloquent and concise statements of individual liberty ever written and adopted by human beings, at any time or any place. Now, whatever our country does, it must do so in a manner consistent with those fundamental values. We have tried to do that around the world in recent years. In Northern Ireland, in the Middle East, and the Balkans, our country has worked, imperfectly but earnestly, to promote peace and security with very limited success. In Northern Ireland, an unprecedented agreement was reached four years ago this month. When I announced the agreement, I described it as a historic step, for which it was. Despite many frustrations and setbacks in its implementation, impressive progress has been made. The rate of killing is way down. Commerce and growth are way up. The borders are open. The local government created pursuant to the agreement is functioning well. Recently, the Irish Republican Army engaged in a second major act of the decommissioning of its weapons. In NorthernIreland, the foundation has been laid for generations of peace after too many generations of war. And, despite the ever-present possibility of a resumption of war, a seemingly intractable conflict has proved to be practical after all.
In the Balkans, we were rightly criticized for the long delay between the onset of violence and our response. In that interim, hundreds of thousands of people were killed. However, once we acted, we helped to bring the violence to an end, and to replace a brutal dictator. Once again, however, a successful outcome is not yet assured. In the Middle East, we have had even less success. Despite an intense effort, President Clinton was unable to help resolve the differences between Israelis and Palestinians. Notwithstanding the current effort of the Bush administration, the tragic cycle of fear, hatred, and violence accelerates. We must not be deterred by the lack of progress. To the contrary, we must intensify our efforts. A resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the right objective for them, for us, and for the world.
Recently, I was asked the question: "Is world peace an impossible dream?" It may seem like the wrong time to talk about peace with the force of war filling the air. But, if we wait for the day that nothing bad is happening in the world, we may never even get to talk about peace. So I would like to close with a few words on that subject.
If by "world peace" it is meant the complete absence of conflict among and within nations, then it might well be impossible. There are more than six billion people in the world. Current estimates project an increase to between eight and ten billion in this century with the largest increases to occur in the poorest countries. So, there will be a huge and rising demand for land and water, for natural resources of all kinds, for jobs and opportunities, for political and economic power. As the gap between the rich and poor nations widens, and as the technology of killing continues to advance more rapidly than almost any other human effort and spread to every part of the world, I think it unrealistic to imagine the complete absence of conflict. But, if we limit our definition to mean the absence of a major war and a containment of regional conflicts, that may be entirely feasible. The remarkable ingenuity of humans, especially of free men and women in a free society, has been repeatedly demonstrated. Throughout history, a negative forecast was always justified at any given point of time, yet progress was steady. I believe that the direction of human destiny is for more knowledge, more freedom, and more broadly shared national prosperity.
Just look at our own experience here in this country. The American Constitution, which I have already referred to, is one of the greatest literary and political accomplishments. And yet, great as were the men who wrote it, they were products of their time, influenced and constrained by the society in which they learned and lived. And so, our Constitution, which we rightly revere, limited the vote to adult white men who owned property. Black persons were not even considered to be persons under the American Constitution. It took seventy-five years, and the bloodiest war in our history, to extend the right to vote to all adult males. It then took another sixty years, and a bitter political struggle, to extend it to women. And, it was just ten years ago, within the lifetime of every person in this room, that Americans with disabilities were given the legal right to live full and meaningful lives. To this moment, the struggle goes on to expand our definition of citizenship, of the human and civil rights, which every American should enjoy.
Now what I have described is both a painful record and, at the same time, inspiring evidence of what is good about our country: A never-ending effort to right the wrongs of the past, enabling each generation to be more free and more prosperous than its predecessor. And today, we are more free and more prosperous than Americans ever have been. Obviously, what has happened here will not be precisely duplicated elsewhere, but we should be heartened by the knowledge that in a different way, at a different pace, the same journey has been underway in Europe, in parts of Asia, and in other lands. Not all, not evenly, and with many setbacks along the way, but the direction is right. This will be the first full century of American dominance in the world. It can be like so many in the past ¥ a century of war, of famine, of oppression, and of injustice. But, it can also be a time when the dominant power uses its strength with restraint and commits its people, power, and prestige to a noble vision: A world that is largely at peace with education, opportunity, and prosperity extending to more and more people in more and more parts of the world. That is our challenge and let us make it our destiny.
I would like to address just a few words to the students here. You are the most fortunate people ever to have lived: To be Americans, citizens of the most free, open, and just society in all of human history. Imperfect as are all human institutions, but distinguished by a never-ending search to improve upon the past and to right the wrongs that become evident in our society over time. Of all of our citizens, you are among the most privileged. You are a very tiny elite of all the people who have ever lived. You have had an education, an opportunity that the vast majority of humans have never had and most of whom could never aspire to. Out of necessity, you will spend most of your lives working to earn income to support your family and to get your children, those of you fortunate enough to have them, off to a good start in life. I ask you to keep one thing in mind, and look at John Wallach as an example. You will find that no matter how much money you make and no matter how many possessions you acquire, you will still be missing something in your life if you do not devote a part of it to something larger than your self-interest, to a cause greater than your individual needs. Real fulfillment in your life will come not from leisure, not from self-indulgence, not from wealth or power. It will come from committing yourself fully, with all of your physical and spiritual might, to a worthwhile cause greater than yourself. I hope that each of you is fortunate enough to find that in your life. Thank you very much for being here.
