Mohamed ElBaradei Interview (page: 2 / 7) Nobel Prize for Peace	Print Interview

Tell us a little bit about your school life. Did you like to read? Were there books you particularly remember liking?

Mohamed ElBaradei: I liked to read a lot. My father made available to us all sorts of books in all sorts of languages. He encouraged us to read in English, in French, in Arabic -- literature, sociology, politics. We had a huge library available at home, and he didn't force us to read, but he was the one person I see every night after dinner, picking a book and reading, and listening to classical music. Culture for him, expanding your knowledge, I think was very important.

What books did you particularly like as a kid?

Mohamed ElBaradei: Lots of books. Literature and history, I think were the two areas where I was impressionable. History gave me the sense of perspective, you know, and literature would just allow you to dream.

Any particular authors that come to mind?

Mohamed ElBaradei: Well, many. I think Steinbeck, for example, was one of my favorites, Somerset Maugham, Hemingway. Quite a few.

Do you still read fiction?

Mohamed ElBaradei: Unfortunately, I don't. My wife now reads fiction. I don't have the time to read fiction. My wife reads the fiction and summarizes it to me, but I wish at one point I'll have time again to read fiction. It is a luxury I cannot afford right now.

Because you have too many facts to read about?

Mohamed ElBaradei: There's so many facts to read about. Even more than I can grasp. Absolutely.

How did you come to enter a diplomatic career?

Mohamed ElBaradei: I wanted to be a lawyer in Egypt. I wanted to practice there.

I wanted to be directly involved in my society, where I grew up, but things were just too tough, and I didn't see how I could do much with the policy of socialism which basically gave very little for private practice for a lawyer to be able to work and express himself, and I thought for a while, maybe diplomacy will give me the opportunity to go abroad, to see an alternative lifestyle and see what I can learn. Eventually, I thought I should learn, through diplomacy, through living abroad, and then come back to Egypt and be able to effect change.
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Unfortunately, it has been over 30 years while I am going through the journey, but you never plan your life the way you wanted. I know what I want to do, and that's what I'm still doing, but I'm doing it in different ways. I think my vision probably has been enlarged.

My focus when I left Egypt in the '60s was Egypt-centered, but then I went to New York, and I went to do my graduate work in New York, and there, again, I recognized both through my academic studies, through my mentors at university, through living in this melting pot that the world is just bigger than one country, and you are really better off if you have a global picture. If you want to achieve change, you shouldn't focus on one particular people, one particular country, one particular language, but try to look at the global picture and try to integrate humanity, and I think that -- that really now is my passion, and I think by doing this, I am serving every single person in the world by trying to get all of us together.
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So there you were in New York, and there was the United Nations building. At what point did you feel attracted to that building and think of yourself working there?

Mohamed ElBaradei: I sort of found my niche there.

I found that I am dealing with people from over 160-70 nations at that time. I've been exposed to every culture, to every language, to every cuisine, and I felt very much at home. I had a lot of fun, and I realized how much we have in common. That was a key, how much we have in common, how much our values are shared values, how much our differences are really superficial at many levels. We talked about borders, nationality, ethnicity, but you look at -- fundamentally, our core values are absolutely shared. We have the same hopes, same aspirations, would like to get the best for our children, would like to live a good life, and that is really what I got from living in New York. That's what I got from working at the UN. That's what I got through going to NYU Law School and getting that intellectual discipline, how to channel this vision into a more effective way.
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One advantage you had was being exposed to different languages at an early age. When did you first study English and French and so forth?

Mohamed ElBaradei: We had English at school. In primary school, we studied English, and I think at grammar school, we had some French. I had for a couple of years a French nanny. Again, that was my father's long-term vision. He thought that languages are key to development. So I grew up with three languages, if you like, and of course, they came in handy in the future. My children are even more fortunate. They have four languages.
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What's their fourth language?

Mohamed ElBaradei: German. From living in Vienna, of course. They went to high school in Vienna.

Did you pick up German too, along the way?

Mohamed ElBaradei: Unfortunately, I didn't. Right now, I live in a cocoon. I live and speak and think in English right now. I rely on my wife and my children when I need German, but I have enough German to get by, at least in Vienna.

Could you tell us about your first missions at the UN?

Mohamed ElBaradei: My first mission -- I was a young diplomat there -- and I was looking into the UN budget, the UN management. I was assigned also to look at the legal aspect of working, treaty-making. I was also looking into or giving a glimpse into the effort to control nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. It was a variety of experience. I was an apprentice at that time, and that is usually very helpful because you don't have the responsibility. You can just sit in the corner and look at what other people are doing, and learning by watching people doing, going around their job.
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But later on, of course, then I progressed. After New York, I went to Egypt, and I worked as a special assistant to the Foreign Minister, who picked me up after I completed my doctorate in law. I was a young, ambitious diplomat at that time, who would like to see things done differently, and this was very crucial.

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