In 1978, Egypt President Anwar Sadat, and Israel Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed the Camp David Accords, a treaty brokered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter and for which Sadat and Begin later received the Nobel Peace Prize.

A teenager at the time, I still recall the powerful emotion I felt as I watched the signing on television. Many years later, by then doing my own work helping people navigate complex conflicts and negotiations, I read Carter’s Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President because I could still viscerally feel in my heart that moment in 1978.

I’ve never forgotten the following story from Carter’s memoir because it moved me to tears. And it taught me something powerful about the real art of helping people untangle conflict. [Read more...]