Anyone who appreciates the art of peacemaking or international mediation was delighted to see former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari chosen to receive this year's Nobel Peace Prize last week.

He was selected from among a reported 197 nominees, including Chinese dissidents, who would have been tempting recipients given their delicate situation in this year of the Beijing Olympics, which put the spotlight and the heat on them.

The Bible says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." Anyone who has seen bodies stacked up, children starving or cities and houses destroyed in the wars that are the alternative to negotiated peace settlements knows that this declaration is true, whatever his religious or philosophic persuasion.

Martti Ahtisaari went right into these conflicts, which included Namibia, Kosovo, Northern Ireland and Aceh in Indonesia, over a period of three decades, seeking agreement and peace among leaders who in many cases felt perfectly at home with bloodshed and suffering in the name of some cause or other. He did this, sometimes risking life and limb, as opposed to pursuing a political career in comfortable Finland, with excellent food and drink, where he -- in spite of having spent so much of his career overseas peacemaking -- nonetheless reached the office of president.

I met him when he was wrestling with some of the most bloody-minded elements on the face of the Earth to try to get independence for Namibia, known during the colonial period as South West Africa. (I was at that point in the Office of Southern African Affairs of the Department of State.)

The struggle for Namibian independence took place in the context of the Cold War. Players included then-apartheid South Africa; the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), backed by the Soviet Union; the Cubans; Angolan groups backed by the Soviets; the CIA; the United Nations; the African nations surrounding Namibia; the Germans, who had ruled South West Africa until mid-World War I, and a host of other countries with political and commercial interests in the country.

Chester A. Crocker, the choice of newly elected President Ronald Reagan to be assistant secretary of state for African affairs, believed that Namibian independence was achievable and that, with it, the door to the resolution of other U.S. problems in southern Africa, including the presence of Cuban troops in Angola, would also swing open. (He turned out to be right.)

Mr. Ahtisaari, the U.N. commissioner for Namibia, was in the center of the affair. The United Nations considered him to be in charge of Namibia. South Africa, the de facto ruler of Namibia, didn't buy that. The Reagan administration was constitutionally wary of Mr. Ahtisaari and suspected him of being a socialist, wishy-washy Scandinavian, which he wasn't. Rather large and bulky in build, he was a man with a somewhat dour mien although he was in fact good-humored. Everyone ultimately found him great to work with and, in the end, he saw the country through to independence as head of the U.N. Transition Assistance Group.

Here are his assets, some of the essential attributes of any negotiator who has hopes of being effective in international negotiations.

First of all, he was capable of subtle, supple thought. This came in part from the fact that he is fluent in English, French, German and Swedish as well as his native Finnish. Different ways of thought are inherent in different languages.

Second, he came from Finland, tough -- see, for example, the Russo-Finnish Winter War -- but also neutral, Scandinavian and noted for its pursuit of peace and its willingness to work hard for it. Particularly during the Cold War, negotiators and mediators could not come from America, the Soviet Union, China, NATO or Warsaw Pact countries. They were considered to carry far too much baggage to be even-handed.

Third, the more international negotiating Mr. Ahtisaari did, the better he got at it. By the time he worked through Namibia, Kosovo, Northern Ireland and Aceh, he had the routine well in hand, if not down pat. There is no formula for making peace. At the same time, the questions that need to be addressed are not that dissimilar, wherever one may be working.

Who are the parties to the conflict, visible and invisible? What do they want from each other? Who has control over what they want? What are the immediate and root causes of the conflict? What are the possible solutions? What makes the different parties tick? What cards do you as the negotiator hold?

There is a need to exercise careful awareness of the history, culture and economics of the parties. Finally, patience and perseverance are required. Note that Mr. Ahtisaari worked on Namibia off and on from 1977 to 1990, a modest 13 years.

Mr. Ahtisaari also has made a vigorous effort to institutionalize the process that he knows so well through the establishment of the Crisis Management Initiative, an independent, nongovernmental organization that seeks to develop and sustain peace in troubled areas.

There is no reason to believe that there ever will be a shortage of troubled areas. I know of no one on Earth better suited to tackle these conflicts than Martti Ahtisaari. There also is every reason to believe that his winning of the Nobel Peace Prize, to be awarded in the city hall of Oslo, Norway, Dec. 10, will provide another arrow in his quiver to use in future peacemaking endeavors.

Given his abilities and the problems he has solved already, it is hard to imagine that Martti Ahtisaari won't be willing to take on more. I can think of no better choice for a Nobel Peace Prize.