NEW YORK | Richard Holbrooke, late US Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, was awarded the 2011 John P. Wallach Peacemaker Award on May 18.
Seeds of Peace also honored Carlson, whose chairman was presented with the 2011 Corporate Peacemaker Award.
Kati Marton Holbrooke accepted the award on behalf of her late husband, saying “I cannot tell you how much it means to me that Richard is being honored by an organization that really embodied his core values throughout his diplomatic career.”
Several hundred philanthropists, dignitaries and community leaders attended the event at the Plaza Hotel, which raised over $1.1M for Seeds of Peace programs.
Carlson Chairman Marilyn Carlson Nelson accepted the Corporate Peacemaker Award.
“Marilyn Carlson Nelson and Carlson Wagonlit Travel are our dedicated travel partners,” said Seeds of Peace Executive Director Leslie Adelson Lewin. “They make connections possible, ensure the safe passage of our Seeds at all times despite challenging political circumstances and whose team can get you from Kabul to Maine—not your most commonly-traveled route—with ease.”
“We cannot overstate the importance of the work Seeds of Peace is doing by training young people from areas of conflict who will go back into their regions and model paths to peace,” she said.
Four Seeds of Peace graduates from regions of international conflict shared their personal stories and how their experiences with Seeds of Peace shaped perspectives of their “enemies.”
“At Camp, we acknowledge that conflicts are personal, that humans—naturally—are emotionally vested in conflicts,” said Mujib, a Seed from Afghanistan. “We don’t rule that out. But what we also realize and try to understand is that there is always another side to the conflict—there’s always a larger picture that we cannot ignore but should try to understand.”
“Ambassador Holbrooke believed in this principal of speaking to the other side and trying to understand the other side,” he said.
Kati Marton Holbrooke, a journalist and author, said that her husband believed “that at the heart of diplomacy were human beings not bureaucrats.”
“Like you, Seeds, he was a bridge builder,” she said. “Shortly after he was named Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, he insisted that both leaders—Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan—come to Washington together. He would not let them come separately and he insisted that all Cabinet level meetings take place with them together.”
“He felt, as you Seeds feel, that once you know your adversary, that once you have sat across the table from him, it’s much tougher to de-humanize him.”
“That is the core of Seeds values and Richard Holbrooke’s.”
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