What role has the Save Darfur Coalition played in the debates on Sudan inside the White House?
JC: Advocacy and diplomacy don’t always go hand-in-hand. Activism is good at mobilizing attention and moral outrage. In diplomacy and negotiation you have to talk with people with whom you have strong differences; both sides have to make compromises and concessions; you have to be pragmatic; and sometimes in getting to a workable solution, the perfect can be the enemy of the good. That doesn’t always wash well with advocacy groups. Further, whenever there is this very vocal and powerful public constituency, it tends to draw attention to that particular issue to the neglect of others. The focus on Darfur, or example, has drawn a lot of attention away from the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement during the last four years. Therefore, critical components of that agreement have been neglected. Now we are facing hard deadlines. Important issues have not been resolved to ensure the agreement goes well. Unfortunately, it has also drawn policymakers’ attention away from other c
