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NOBEL PEACE PRIZEIn 1987 Costa Rica was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for remaining a leader for world demili- tarization, and a strong commitment to peace.The Nobel Peace Prize Committee has a way of using the prize itself to strengthen ongoing peace efforts. That is one reason why it awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize for Peace to Oscar Arias Sanchez, the President of Costa Rica.Costa Rica, with no special resources and not much wealth, has become a new power in the world — not an economic or military power, but a moral one. Costa Ricans are enthusiastic practitioners of democracy, tolerance, and free enterprise, which, they readily acknowledge, they learned from the United States. They have also adopted some ideals of their own — regional and global responsibility, environmental stewardship, and peacemaking.To be sure that their democracy would be maintained by the will of the people and not the force of arms, they abolished the military. They wrote a new constitution forbidding the establishment of armed forces. That freed up a lot of money for education, health care, and economic development.By Oscar Arias Sanchez