Former President Carter Is Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
October 11, 2002
Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter delivers the following speech after receiving the Nobel medal and diploma presentation in the Oslo City Hall.
美国前总统吉米·卡特赢得2002年度诺贝尔和平奖。诺贝尔和平奖颁发给吉米·卡特是为了表彰他为寻求和平解决国际冲突所作出的不懈努力。他在领奖时抨击美国对伊拉克的政策，并警告所谓的预防性战争可能具有“灾难性”的后果。
据香港文汇报引述路透社报道，卡特在奥斯陆接受诺贝尔和平奖的讲话中说：“强国采取预防性战争的原则可能树立了一个可引致灾难性后果的榜样。”
卡特指出，战争永远是邪恶的，虽然有时可能是必需的坏事。他强调“不应通过互相杀害来学习如何和平共处”。
卡特说：“我们必须记住，现今地球上有至少八个核武强国，其中三个正在国际关系紧张的地区威胁邻国。”
但卡特亦说，伊拉克必须“全面遵守(联合国)安理会的一致决定，废除所有大杀伤力武器，并准许检查员畅通无阻地进入各地点，以证实伊拉克遵守承诺”。
卡特亦呼吁国际社会接受联合国的领导，以寻求和平及缩窄贫富悬殊，并称战争永远是邪恶的。
卡特说，踏入新的千禧年，全球在许多方面变得更危险，恐怖主义和内战取代了二十世纪的冷战。他说：“必须以和平配合强大的国际联盟和共识来对付全球的挑战。这最好是透过联合国来进行，虽然它未必完美。”
Your Majesties, Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is with a deep sense of gratitude that I accept this prize. I am grateful to my wife Rosalynn, to my colleagues at The Carter Center, and to many others who continue to seek an end to violence and suffering throughout the world. The scope and character of our Center's activities are perhaps unique, but in many other ways they are typical of the work being done by many hundreds of nongovernmental organizations that strive for human rights and peace.
Most Nobel laureates have carried out our work in safety, but there are others who have acted with great personal courage. None has provided more vivid reminders of the dangers of peacemaking than two of my friends, Anwar Sadat and Yitzhak Rabin, who gave their lives for the cause of peace in the Middle East.
Like these two heroes, my first chosen career was in the military, as a submarine officer. My shipmates and I realized that we had to be ready to fight if combat was forced upon us, and we were prepared to give our lives to defend our nation and its principles. At the same time, we always prayed fervently that our readiness would ensure that there would be no war.
Later, as president and as Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces, I was one of those who bore the sobering responsibility of maintaining global stability during the height of the Cold War, as the world's two superpowers confronted each other. Both sides understood that an unresolved political altercation or a serious misjudgment could lead to a nuclear holocaust. In Washington and in Moscow, we knew that we would have less than a half hour to respond after we learned that intercontinental missiles had been launched against us. There had to be a constant and delicate balancing of our great military strength with aggressive diplomacy, always seeking to build friendships with other nations, large and small, that shared a common cause.
In those days, the nuclear and conventional armaments of the United States and the Soviet Union were almost equal, but democracy ultimately prevailed because of commitments to freedom and human rights, not only by people in my country and those of our allies, but in the former Soviet empire as well. As president, I extended my public support and encouragement to Andrei Sakharov, who, although denied the right to attend the ceremony, was honored here for his personal commitments to these same ideals.
The world has changed greatly since I left the White House. Now there is only one superpower, with unprecedented military and economic strength. The coming budget for American armaments will be greater than those of the next fifteen nations combined, and there are troops from the United States in many countries throughout the world. Our gross national economy exceeds that of the three countries that follow us, and our nation's voice most often prevails as decisions are made concerning trade, humanitarian assistance, and the allocation of global wealth. This dominant status is unlikely to change in our lifetimes.
Great American power and responsibility are not unprecedented, and have been used with restraint and great benefit in the past. We have not assumed that super strength guarantees super wisdom, and we have consistently reached out to the international community to ensure that our own power and influence are tempered by the best common judgment.
Within our country, ultimate decisions are made through democratic means, which tend to moderate radical or ill-advised proposals. Constrained and inspired by historic constitutional principles, our nation has endeavored for more than two hundred years to follow the now almost universal ideals of freedom, human rights, and justice for all.
Our president, Woodrow Wilson, was honored here for promoting the League of Nation