The 2015 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to four organizations that have in effect been mediating to keep peace in Tunisia. The four organizations—a labor union, a trade group, a human rights league, and a lawyers’ group—comprise the National Dialogue Quartet, formed in 2013 to help Tunisia move beyond its 2011 revolution to build a “pluralistic democracy.” The Nobel Committee said the Quartet “exercised its role as a mediator and driving force to advance peaceful democratic development in Tunisia with great moral authority.”

The Quartet “established an alternative, peaceful political process at a time when the country was on the brink of civil war,” enabling Tunisia to establish a constitutional system of government. The Quartet was instrumental in ensuring that Tunisia held peaceful, democratic elections last fall by facilitating dialogue among citizens, political parties and authorities to find “consensus-based solutions to a wide range of challenges across political and religious divides.”

It’s difficult enough to mediate between two individuals with common interests; to bring together political factions vying for power along with citizens on both sides of a revolution is truly admirable. I’d like to hear more about how this Quartet was able to be so effective—and I hope the peace lasts.

October 2015