America has engaged in two major conflicts in its recent history. While the battles in Iraq and Afghanistan have ended, casualties continue to mount. The "peace process" in the Middle East has morphed into a "road map to peace," but peace itself remains elusive.

Media and movies teach that war is worth our notice; peace is dull. Nothing new in all this.

10 great hawks and doves
Ten people famous for making war?

Sure, I can draw up that list. Let's see...

Genghis Khan, Tamerlane*, William the Conqueror, Attila the Hun, Hannibal, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Ulysses S. Grant, Field Marshal Rommel, General George Patton ... how many's that? Aw, ten already? I hardly took a breath.

How about ten people famous in history for making peace? (Other than religious figures who preached peace, I mean.)

Well, um ... er ...

Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. come to mind, but they didn't "make" peace exactly. They achieved difficult social goals without war. In fact, there is no Genghis Khan of peacemaking--no one who swept the world leaving a tremendous trail of peace and harmony in his wake.

Historical figures who are celebrated as peacemakers usually have some gray spots in their record. Consider one of the earliest of these "peacemakers," the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses the Great (Ramses II*). Yes, that Pharaoh, the one whose extensive military victories were among the most famous of ancient Egyptian history.

But he was called the "peacemaker" in his time. How could that be?

Ancient peacemakers
Ramses earned his (peacemaking) stripes for a war he didn't start.

The Hittite empire was expanding out of Asia Minor into territories controlled by Egypt. Ramses had battled an earlier Hittite king to a standstill at the Battle of Kadesh, but by 1271 bc, trouble was brewing again. Instead of gathering an army, Ramses sat down with Hattusili III, the Hittite king, and the two men drew up a treaty.

I guess a peace treaty was a novelty at the time. But here's the interesting thing: Two copies of this treaty exist, and they are identical except for the first few lines. The Hittite version says Ramses started the peacemaking. The Egyptian version says it was Hattusili.

Neither man wanted the credit. The real glory, it seems, lay in making war. And in truth, historically, the people best situated to make dramatic peace are those who have been making effective war.

Wading through blood to make peace
History's greatest peacemakers often have bloody pasts. Consider Ashoka*, the greatest emperor of India's Mauryan dynasty.

He started his career by killing all but one of his brothers just to claim the throne. Then he did what great kings do--started conquering his neighbors. In 262 bc he won a frightful victory over the minor kingdom of Kalinga.

Later, touring the battlefield and stepping over corpses, he had a revelation. Suddenly, Ashoka renounced violence, and indeed, he never fought another battle. Yet he ruled, even extended, one of the biggest empires of his time and deepened his hold on it.

How?

By establishing justice, asserting moral authority, and sending teachers out to spread the Buddhist creed. Ashoka's 38-year reign was remembered like the mythical Camelot of Arthurian legend, except that his was real.

Still, he waded through blood to gain the power to do good. Is peacemaking just what war-makers do after they finish killing and start worrying about their legacy?

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