Transcript (as broadcast)

Up next, our "Power Player of the Week." How one woman is leading an effort to bring peace to hot spots around the world.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE:  A look at the Lincoln Memorial on the former presidents 208th birthday. Just across the Lincoln Memorial, on the National Mall, is a striking building dedicated to trying to bring peace to troubled areas around the world. Here is our "Power Player of the Week."

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NANCY LINDBORG, UNITED STATES INSTITUTE OF PEACE: Nobody is suggesting that you can eliminate conflict from human interactions, but there is an opportunity to manage it so that it doesn’t become violent.
Good afternoon, everybody.

WALLACE (voice-over): Nancy Lindborg is president of the U.S. Institute of Peace. A government-funded independent organization, it’s spent the last 32 years trying to prevent wars.

LINDBORG: Peace is very practical. It is a set of learned skills, approaches and frameworks that is essential for our national security.

WALLACE:  With a staff of 180, USIP has people on the ground in 10 hot spots across the Middle East and Africa, partnering with locals to head off violence, such as right now in Iraq.

LINDBORG: When ISIS was finally pushed out of Tikrit, you had the Shia and Sunni tribes poised for repeated cycles of tribal blood feuds.

WALLACE:  USIP worked with Iraqis they had trained to get the key players to talk.

LINDBORG: That peace accord led to the ability of quarter of a million Iraqis who had been displaced by the fighting to return home.

WALLACE:  Lindborg has directed efforts to stop conflicts from turning violent in central Africa. And there’s Generation Change, bringing 28 young leaders from 13 nations --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First of all, I want to thank you.

WALLACE:  To meeting with the Dalai Lama and discuss how to promote peace.

LINDBORG: The key message is, you need to stay on that journey and it takes a lot of inner resilience and a lot of fortitude.

WALLACE:  The institute is next to the State Department on the National Mall, in a striking space Lindborg says symbolizes its lofty purpose.

LINDBORG: We look across at the Lincoln Memorial, and across the river we have the Arlington Cemetery. So it’s a daily reminder to all of us here on the importance of resolving violent conflict.

SUSAN RICE, OBAMA’S NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: We are all patriots, first and foremost.

WALLACE:  Last month, USIP tried to broker a different kind of peace, hosting a conference called Passing the Baton to mark the transition from one president to the next.

MICHAEL FLYNN, TRUMP’S NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: The gravity of this moment is a bit overwhelming.

WALLACE:  Then, the past and future White House national security advisors had a symbolic handoff of responsibility.

WALLACE (on camera): How did you get into the peace business?

LINDBORG: I have spent the last two decades going to terrible places.

WALLACE (voice-over): Lindborg worked first for the Mercy Corps, and then USAID, providing relief for people caught in Syria’s civil war and African droughts. Two years ago she came to the institute to try to get ahead of conflicts.

LINDBORG: How exactly do we get at the roots that are causing all this violence and all this suffering? How do we prevent that from happening? And after it happens, how do you resolve it so that you have a more enduring peace?

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WALLACE:  Lindborg says there’s been a spike in violence in recent years from civil wars and religious extremism, which means her institute faces an even bigger challenge. To learn more about USIP, please go to our website, foxnewssunday.com.