USD President's Report 2001

of peace "President Carter showed m e by exampl e th e importance of being well-informed," she says. "He can talk very specifically about the state of the world, and he has a remarkable ability to grasp tl1e finer points one side is making during a negotiation and understand

tHe t here is an image of Joyce Neu that Steven Hochman will never forget. Hochman, director of research for The Carter Center at Atlanta 's Emory University, saw pho tos of a trip that Neu made to the Balkans to help negotiate a peace settlement between Bosnia and Serbia. "There is a picture of Joyce wearing a combat helmet and fl ak jacket, on her ·way to a negotiation with one of the factions," Hochman says . "The photo says a lot about her and the passion she has for her work." Neu, at that time a director for the center's conflict resolution program, worked with a Carter Center team to help bring about a cease-fire in the war-torn region. "She wasn' t trying to be a hero," Hochman adds, "but it took tremendous courage to do her job in a ver y dangerous and w1stabl e environment." Neu, the director of USD's Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, doesn't always wear combat fatigues to work, but she always seems ready to be on the front lines. In addition to peacemaking in Bosnia, she's mediated talks among guerri ll a factions and the African governments of Uganda and Sudan, and she led a three-year conflict prevention program in Estonia. The training for Neu's delicate work in conflict resolution comes in large part from her academic work as a linguist, studying the ways language is used dw-ing negotiations. "I've looked very carefully at the ways people deve lop and maintain r elationships," she says. "It 's thos e relationships that are so essential in maintaining a peace once it 's negotiated . "Once you have peace, all you have is a piece of paper," Neu says. "At The Carter Center we tried not so much to make enemies into friends, but to build a respect and trust among the sides - there often ar e more than two - that makes it hard er to star t shooting again."

what the ramifications would be for the other." Even with her academic background and lessons from Carter, Neu says each negotiation in whi ch sh e has been involved was wuque. "It's more art than science;' she says. "There is no secret technique, no recipe for how to proceed .

About the only constant is to show no favoritism whatsoever. No one is holding a gun to the heads of people at a negotiation tabl e; they can get up and leave at any time, so tl1e faci litator can 't be per ceived as favoring one side." Despite the rewards of bringing people and nations together, Neu admits the long and arduous peacemaking process takes a per sonal toll. "There was a bloody civil war in Sudan, and The Carter Center began mediating in the late 1980s," she says. "We were still working on it when I left in 2000. "It can be a huge burden because you feel you have so many people's lives in your hands," she says, "but knowing that I have played a part in cr eating some peace in tl1e world - even though it's a ver y, very small one - is a wonderful feeling."

Neu gleaned her philosophi es on peace and j ust ice from o ne of th e wo rl d's fo remost peacemakers, former President Jimmy Carter.

"IF YOU WANT TO MAKE PEACE WITH YOUR ENEMY, YOU HAVE TO WORK WITH YOUR ENEMY, THEN HE BECOMES YOUR PARTNER." - ·1 LSON MAND~LA