The award of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize to former President Jimmy Carter has a special significance. This has not been a good year for peace; Mr. Carter’s accomplishments are valuable reminders of what can come from the quiet yet persistent pursuit of peaceful solutions.

The Nobel committee cited Mr. Carter for two specific reasons: his success as president in finding Middle East peace between Egypt and Israel through diplomacy; and his “untiring effort” since leaving office to advance democracy and human rights. During its deliberations, the five-member committee made no secret of its intent to use the prize to send a message to a world reeling from the Sept. 11 attacks, the ongoing war on terrorism and the looming war against Iraq. That message, according to the citation, is “that conflicts must as far as possible be resolved through mediation and international co-operation based on international law, respect for human rights, and economic development.”

The crowning achievement of Mr. Carter’s presidency was the Camp David Accord he negotiated between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Premier Menachem Begin in 1978. Mr. Carter kept the two Middle East leaders at Camp David for 13 days; the result was a shared Nobel for them and a peace between their countries that has endured. The Nobel committee contrasted that diplomacy with the current situation in which President Bush is threatening to use force against Iraq. “It should be interpreted as a criticism of the line that the current administration has taken,” said Chairman Gunnar Berge. “It’s a kick in the leg to all that follow the same line as the United States.”

It is said that Jimmy Carter had to lose the presidency to achieve greatness; his accomplishments since a landslide loss in 1980 have been individually modest but collectively great. East Timor, Haiti, El Salvador, the Koreas, Jamaica are but a few of the places he has worked to find peaceful solutions to conflict, to advance democracy and to promote economic opportunity. He has used the influence of the office he once held not for personal gain but to benefit the world and richly deserves the world’s most prestigious prize.