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 Monday at their annual meeting. Former US 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 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. Carter said that, as the last global superpower, the US has a responsibility to be a leader in peace efforts and set an example to the rest of the world. Instead, he said, the US 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. “We need to be reminded of the standards that the Nobel laureates have always tried to achieve ... just because in their own communities they saw a need for change,” Carter said. But de Klerk said many are vulnerable to bad influences because of poor education, poverty and unemployment.
