I had the unique opportunity to meet with Dr. Oscar Arias, former president of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, on 3 separate occasions during his visit to ASU from 30 October to 1 November 2011. Two of those occasions were in 10-15 person Q&A-style forums and the 3rd was at the reception following his Fulbright Centennial Lecture, which I also had the pleasure of attending. At the end of his short stay, he gave me some key advice, which I will share with you here:
He stressed the importance of “clarity of thought.” You must be consistent with your positions and reasoning and you must never give up so much in the course of negotiations to lose sight of your goals and values. This, he said, has been one of the main problems with today’s leadership. Either they are unclear of what they want, or they want the wrong things. By making peace a priority, one can then focus the resources that would have been spent on military on health, education, infrastructure and foreign aid. “You cannot build a paradise,” he continued, “within your borders if there is an inferno outside them.”
