Notes; “Post-Its for Peace,” Notes from Carter Center negotiations of the PDRE vs. EPLF, Oct-Sept/1989. (Photo Courtesy of the Jimmy Carter Library,
Museum Display, Post-Presidency section.)
changed in the late 1880s when Italy colonized Eritrea, affecting
Two months after the Atlanta talks, the two groups met
should be federated to Ethiopia, many of the people living there
Ethiopia to flee the country. In May 1993, Eritrea became an
the region’s culture, commerce, and borders. When Italian
colonization ended in 1941, Eritrea was administered by Great
Britain. By the time UN Resolution 390 mandated that Eritrea
saw themselves as distinct and separate from Ethiopians proper.
Eritreans wanted their own country, but Ethiopia objected to the
again in Nairobi, Kenya. Though progress had been made,
the fighting continued. In May 1991, Tigrayan forces reached
the capital city of Addis Ababa, forcing the president of
independent nation.25
idea, not only for historic reasons, but because without Eritrea,
In this instance, even the foreign policy expertise and
The documents shown on this page, Post-It Notes for Peace, were
formidable obstacles of all,” Carter wrote, looking back on the
which is on the eastern side of Ethiopia, bordering the Red Sea
between Djibouti and Sudan, Ethiopia would be landlocked.
23
created during the opening round of talks held at The Carter Center in
Atlanta. The informality of using post-it notes during such important
negotiations, as well as the contents of some notes—“Let Them Get
Stuck, Silence is O.K,” or “Should you offer to leave the room?”—was
in keeping with the rationale behind the way the negotiation space
had been set up. The negotiating team’s first concern was to “create
an environment that was both neutral and conducive to a peaceful
outcome,” since previous negotiation efforts between the PDRE
and EPLF, which took place in hotels, had been unsuccessful. They
reportedly “brought in sofas and overstuffed chairs…added table
lamps, plants, and small coffee tables,” and, “as a less than subtle
touch, placed a white sculpture of doves on a pedestal in one corner
of the room and hung a painting of the signing of the Middle East
peace accords at Camp David on a nearby wall.”24
Dayle E. Spencer and William J. Spencer. The International Negotiation Network: A
New Methodology of Approaching Some Very Old Problems. 2, no. 2, January 1992:
http://www.cartercenter.org/documents/1224.pdf
24
Spencer and Spencer, The International Negotiation Network
23
international relations experience of former President
Carter and The Carter Center could not reconcile the
longest-running conflict in African history. “One of the most
negotiations, “can be the continuing conviction of one or both
sides that they might still win the war. This was a problem we
faced when the Carter Center conducted mediations between
Ethiopia and Eritrea.”26 Despite the outcome of that struggle,
however, Jimmy Carter will have a remarkable legacy—a man
who believed in peace, not only for the citizens of his own
country, but for his fellow man the world over.
For a compl ]H