Nobel Peace Prize winners say US must lead global peace efforts, wars should be last resort

CHICAGO – Poverty, a lack of education and arms proliferation present daunting obstacles, yet peace can be achieved if world leaders are more willing to talk and young people are encouraged to get involved, Nobel Peace Prize winners said at their annual meeting.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and ex-presidents Mikhail Gorbachev of the former Soviet Union and Lech Walesa of Poland were among the Peace Prize winners in Chicago for the start of the three-day World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates.

The summit runs through Wednesday and comes just weeks before Chicago hosts President Barack Obama, also a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and foreign leaders for the NATO summit, a meeting that is expected to draw large numbers of anti-war protesters. Obama did not attend Monday’s meetings.

Actor Sean Penn on Wednesday will be presented with the 2012 Peace Summit Award for his work in Haiti.

Carter said that, as the last global superpower, the U.S. has a responsibility to be a leader in peace efforts and set an example to the rest of the world. Instead, he said, the U.S. is “too inclined to go to war” and is contemplating going to war again, “perhaps in Iran.”

“Humankind has got to say that war comes last” and negotiation comes first, Carter said during a panel discussion with Gorbachev, Walesa and former South African President F.W. de Klerk.

All agreed that more young people need to adopt the ideals of peace — including human rights, justice and environmental issues — whether it’s in the rest of the world or their own communities.

But de Klerk said many are vulnerable to bad influences because of poor education, poverty and unemployment.

“They are vulnerable because they have nothing to lose,” he said.

It is the first time the Nobel Peace Prize summit has been held in North America. The Nobel Laureates also toured more than a dozen Chicago Public Schools on Monday.

Former President Bill Clinton gave the keynote address late Monday at the opening night dinner.

Clinton referred to his personal experiences with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, and conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda while he was president and as head of the Clinton Foundation.

“You also have to find a way to step into the gap of where we are and where we ought to be,” Clinton said.

The NATO summit will be held May 20-21. Chicago was also supposed to host the G-8 summit, but the Obama administration moved it to the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland.