Peace Above All : Jimmy Carter, Moral Leadership, and the Camp David Accords

In an increasingly chaotic and tribalistic world, the remarkable peace forged by President Jimmy Carter between Egypt and Israel at the Camp David Accords is instructive. Although Carter failed to provide moral leadership on a large scale — although he could not communicate his moral vision to voters — he fulfilled it on a smaller scale at Camp David. For not only did he operate on a higher moral plane than Israeli Prime Minister Menachim Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, holding human life and peace to be more valuable than the materialistic disputes that had foiled previous efforts at conflict resolution; he was also able to convince them of his worldview's value. President Carter thus fulfilled the two key criteria for moral leadership: He (1) operated on a higher moral plane than Begin and Sadat and (2) inspired others to ascend to that plane. The Camp David Accords prove the value of moral leadership. If Carter had appealed to self-interest or realpolitik, he would not have been able to forge peace between Egypt and Israel. But by acting as a moral leader, by appealing to widely and deeply held values such as justice, liberty, and brotherhood that both Begin and Sadat held dear, Carter was able to move past the stymies of the past. He was able to create outer peace from his own spiritual inner peace. And in casting aside cynicism for hope, hatred for a distinctly Christian version of love, Carter achieved one of the greatest successes not only of his presidency, but of any presidency