The Nobel Peace Prize awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee is undoubtedly the prize created by Alfred Nobel who more disputes usually collectfrom criticism of his premature concession to accusations of racism and political motivation.
Unlike the rest of the awards created by the Swedish engineer, no one knows why He decided to create the Peace Prize and only stipulated that the prize be awarded “to the person who has done the most for the brotherhood of nations, for the reduction of standing armies and for the celebration and promotion of peace congresses. “.
As for its motivations, historians consider two hypotheses.
For some, it was because of them friendship with the peace activist, Bertha von Suttnerthat in 1906 she would become the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and only the second woman in any category, after Marie Curie.
On the other hand, there are award experts who argue that the reason is due to the guilt that Alfred Nobel would have generated for creating dynamite and ballistite, two elements that were used for violent purposes during the life of the Swedish engineer.
It is not even known why he decided that the prize was the only one awarded by Norway. In this sense, some speculate that it was why it did not have the same militaristic tradition as Swedenthe country in charge of awarding the other 5 prizes.
Although the most avid critics claim that in recent years the award has clearly moved away from the goal raised by its creator, the truth is that the surprises and criticisms of those who are awarded (and those not) practically go back to its creation.
Here is a list of five most amazing winners e a glaring omission.
Barack Obama, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2009
To give an idea of the extent of the surprise that the award reserved for someone who at that time was president of the United States for less than a year, just think that Obama himself was surprised, and his advisers even thought about the possibility of not attending the ceremony as “a mistake”.
The official reason given by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for awarding Obama was for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”. It is worth clarifying that at this time The United States was actively involved in two wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In his acceptance speech, Obama acknowledged that his results were “minimal” compared to other recipients and defended the use of war as a means of keeping the peace.
“Make no mistake: evil exists in the world. A non-violent movement could not have stopped Hitler’s armies and the negotiations cannot persuade al Qaeda leaders to lay down their arms,” he told attendees.
Nine days before the handover ceremony, Obama had authorized the sending of 30,000 troops to Afghanistan to train the country’s security forces.
In 2015, former secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Geir Lundestad, stated in his biography that the award wanted “strengthen Obama”but he acknowledged that “they didn’t get what they were looking for”.
Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, 1973 Nobel Peace Prize
The scandal generated by the award to Henry Kissinger for his role in achieving the ceasefire in Vietnam was the largest that the Nobel Committee has experienced up to that point and has had repercussions in its own headquarters: after the announcement , two members resigned in protest of the award.
Indeed, Le Duc Tho, the Vietnamese general who had signed the Paris Peace Accords with Kissinger and who had also received the award, did not accept the award, claiming that peace had not been achieved and that the United States continued to violate the treaty that was signed in the French capital.
To date, Tho is the only one who has not accepted the Nobel Peace Prize.
For critics, Kissinger’s role in the Condor Plan and the attacks in Cambodia have made the Nobel “a joke”. For New York Timesthe prize was to be renamed “Nobel War Prize” and an American diplomat remarked that, on the basis of the prize, “Norwegians have a sense of humor”.
Kissinger did not attend the awards ceremony because he feared he would be the subject of anti-war protests. After the fall of Saigon (now Ho Chi Mihn City) in 1975 at the hands of North Vietnam, the the diplomat tried to return the prizebut the committee refused.
Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin, Nobel Peace Prize 1994
The award for Israeli and Palestinian leaders is the subject of much criticism, largely due to the Oslo accords for which they were recognized never managed to achieve the proposed goal to achieve peace in the Middle East.
On the other hand, the figure of Yasser Arafat has aroused surprises and controversy in some sectors for his role in the Palestinian armed struggle. At least one member of the Committee resigned in protest at the assignment to the Arab leader, whom he accused of being “the most famous terrorist in the world“.
In the Arab world, however, the criticism was aimed at Peres and Rabin, while the figure of Arafat was claimed and compared to that of Nelson Mandela.
Juan Manuel Santos, Nobel Peace Prize 2016
The surprise for the Colombian president award came because it was announced five days after the rejection of the Colombian peace agreement between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) by 50.2% of the population in a referendum.
Soon after, the Colombian government and the FARC signed a peace agreement that was not subjected to a new referendum, but was sent to Congress for ratification.
European Union, Nobel Peace Prize 2012
Perhaps the biggest surprise for the Norwegian Nobel Committee was that major protests over the European Union award they took place in the same country.
On a march in Oslo shortly before the awards ceremony, numerous non-governmental and political organizations, including representatives of the Norwegian ruling party at the time, protested for the EU prizewhich they blamed for its role in the financial crisis in Greece, its aggressive business practices against Latin America and its anti-immigration policy.
The EU prize has also aroused heated reactions from other recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize, such as the South African archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Argentine Adolfo Pérez Esquivelwho affirmed that the EU “was far from the idea of peacemakers that Alfred Nobel had in mind”.
Mahatma Gandhi, a flagrant omission also recognized by the Nobel Committee
The list of people deserving of the award who did not receive it is long, but the case of the Indian leader Mahatma Ghandi is particularly known, given his political career explicitly dedicated to non-violence that has repeatedly nominated him, but I’ll never win it.
Gandhi, an Indian lawyer who led a non-violent movement to liberate India from British rule, was appointed in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and even in 1948. shortly before being assassinated in January of that year by a Hindu nationalist.
There are reports that the Committee wanted to award him the posthumous prize, but could not because Nobel’s instructions specifically stated that the prize it should be given to a living person.
In this sense, the fact that the Commission declared the 1948 award vacant because, in its words, “there was no one alive worthy of the award”, is interpreted as a tacit admission that they failed by not giving it to him.
As stated in 2006 by former chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Geir Lundestad, Ghandi did not receive the award due to the Committee’s Eurocentric perspective, unable to value the anti-colonial struggle.
Source: Clarin
