“It’s been more than 2,000 years since there was peace between Egypt and a free Jewish nation,” Jimmy Carter, former president-turned-diplomat announced at the outset of the meeting of the two countries that he brokered. “If our present expectations are realized, this year we shall see such peace again.” Reality did not quite live up to Carter’s utopian visions. In fact, it quite complicated the subsequent events, but in bringing together existential enemies to sign off on a framework agreement, he nevertheless accomplished a remarkable feat.

On this day, October 11, 2002, for his work in pushing through the Camp David Accords, which negotiated a conditional peace between Israel and Egypt, Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Carter doggedly pursued the negotiations, forcing the two men at the time to remain at the table when their first instinct was to leave. Carter masterfully played the “U.S. relations” card, suggesting to both sides their spurning of agreement risked hurting their reputation with Washington, and he leaned on both men to come to a resolution, even if it meant going against their own political parties. Both the Egyptians and Israelis later acknowledged that if not for Carter, negotiations would have never succeeded.