USD Magazine, Fall 2001

THE NEU PEACE PROCESS A FIRST, THE GUNFIRE DISTRACTED HER. As Joyce Neu worked in a Sarajevo hotel room by Tiinothy McKernan

plwtos by Mike Muckley

programs with activism, and blends peacemaking with the need for jusrice. "Ir's important ro understand peace and justice are nor interchangeable terms," she says. "There are dozens of aca– demic peace programs and a growing number of nonprofits centered on human rights, bur there are few that combine che rwo because they are separate disciplines. "They often share similar goals, bur peacemakers and

late into the night, Bosnian Serbs, Croats and Muslims waged a bloody battle in the streets below her window. Neu, then a senior associate direcror ofThe Carter Center conflict resolution ream, accompanied President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, ro the besieged ciry ro help arrange a cease-fire that would bring che warring

The 90,000 square-foot Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, made possible by a $25 million gift from its namesake, opened this fall . Students currently take a variety of classes in international relations, political science and ethics in the institute, with a graduate curriculum in peace and justice studies beginning next fall .

factions ro the negotiating table. Edgy and nervous, Neu pushed her fears aside and contin ued her work. The result was a four-month cease-fire agreement rhac proved ro be a step coward the 1995 Dayron Accords, which ended nearly four years of carnage in the former Yugoslavia. "Hearing that shooting so close helped me understand how people can endure war, " she says. "Nor that I was in even a fraction of the danger most people in a war zone are in every day, bur I realized how strong chose people have to be ro go through war, and how strong their desire is ro make ic srop." Neu's desire ro create peace brought her ro USO lace lase year as che first executive director of che Joan B. Kroc Inscirure for Peace and Justice, built wich a $25 million gift from che San Diego philanthropist. As che faci liry rook shape on che former West Point Field, Neu set our ro create a new kind of institute, one that combines traditional universiry-based

mediarors muse remain neutral, while those in the human rights and justice arenas are advocates for particular groups," Neu adds. "Sometimes it's difficult to reconcile the rwo approaches." Bue not impossible. For its first conference in December, che institute is bringing rogerher leaders of four nations in various stages of confl ict and all-our war - the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nepal, Macedonia and Guatemala - with the hope of creating durable peace processes in chose nations. Also invited are leaders in human rights and jus– tice, including President Carter, who will discuss ways to increase peace through justice. The institute is well prepared for such major peace efforcs. Breakout rooms are located throughout the building ro accommodate private negotiations, which then can be shared with other world leaders in the 300-seac audirorium. Above rhe audirorium are booths for rranslarors ro insranta-

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USO MAGAZINE