If there is one award that generates more controversy than the Oscars, it is the Nobel Peace Prize. In its more than 100-year history, the coveted award has had its share of controversies, both for its contentious winners and notable misses.
Donald Trump’s nomination (by Pakistan and Israel) for next year’s Nobel Peace Prize has generated a meme feast on social media. People are debating whether Trump has made any real contributions to world peace. However, even without Trump’s nomination, the award has been controversial almost from its very foundation.
The controversy is not limited to who has won and who has not. The opaque selection process, the lack of transparency, the total absence of accountability, the exclusivity of the selection committee, and its historically Eurocentric perspective have all been subject to scrutiny.
The selection process has, at times, been marred by accusations of sexism, racism, and being politically motivated.
However, perhaps the biggest controversy is the irony of the award itself. The person who founded the prize and gave his name to this award himself contributed to the strife.
Dynamite, Rockets & Nobel Award
Alfred Nobel, the man behind the award, has a contentious legacy.
He famously invented dynamite and devoted his life to advancing weapons of war, murder, and mayhem. He might have invented dynamite for construction purposes; however, the inventor didn’t hold back when it came to perfecting weapons.
Nobel made significant contributions to improving weapons technology, such as in rockets and cannons.
His inventions perfected the art of war, winning him a fortune.
The Premature Obituary Of ‘Merchant Of Death’
Even during his lifetime, Alfred Nobel did not have a particularly positive public image.
A telling incident happened when his brother died. A French newspaper confused him with Alfred Nobel and wrote a premature obituary for him titled “The Merchant of Death is dead.”
The article went on to add that Nobel “became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before.”
The not-so-positive obituary left a deep impression on Nobel. Worried about his legacy, he founded the Nobel Peace Prize so that he might be remembered not for his military inventions but for the peace prize.
The Fantastic Five
The Norwegian Nobel Committee, comprising five individuals appointed by the Norwegian parliament, serves as the arbiter.
The committee members are often retired politicians and almost exclusively Norwegians. This demographic exclusivity has raised several questions regarding representation, diversity, and inclusivity.
Why should selectors of a world award be exclusively Norwegians?
Interestingly, while Alfred Nobel’s will makes it clear that the Norwegian parliament must select the committee members, it does not say that the chosen members must be exclusively Norwegian.
As Berit Ås of the Norwegian parliament (Storting) said in 1974: “The Storting should reconsider its traditions when the appointment of members to the Nobel Committee is concerned. It would be significant if the committee was constituted by persons who, to a higher extent, represented the world community both ideologically, culturally, and geographically.”
Can a selection body, made exclusively of one nationality, be expected to always rise above national considerations?
If the over 100-year history of Nobel winners is anything to go by, the answer is a clear no.
Till 1960, the award was given exclusively to people from Europe and North America.
It took the selection committee nearly 50 years to find its first award winner from a non-White background.
It took the selection committee 72 years to select an Asian winner for the award. In 1973, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Vietnamese Le Duc Tho, the first Asian to win the prize, who incidentally refused to accept the award.
Out of 111 individuals who have won the award, only 17 (15.3%) are from Asia, and only 13 (11.7%) are from Africa.
The Eurocentric perspective of the Nobel committee is hard to miss.
Gandhi: The Missing Nobel Laureate
One of the biggest controversies in the history of the Nobel Peace Prize is the fact that the man who arguably did the most for nonviolence never received the award.
Mahatma Gandhi was nominated for the award five times: 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947, and 1948. In 1939, Gandhi shared the nomination with Adolf Hitler, though neither made it to the shortlist.
In 1948, Gandhi shared the nomination with Joseph Stalin. The failure to award Gandhi the Peace Prize is considered one of the most serious failures of the Nobel Award.
One possible reason for this was the Eurocentric view of the selection committee, which led them to overlook not just Gandhi but also all national movements in colonial societies that were fighting against mostly European powers for their independence.
In 2006, the former director of the Nobel Institute, Geir Lundestad, stated that the greatest omission in the prize’s history was never awarding the Peace Prize to Mahatma Gandhi.
“Gandhi could do without the Nobel Peace Prize. Whether the Nobel committee can do without Gandhi is the question,” said Lundestad.
It is also ironic that Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela, two people inspired by Gandhian ideology, got the award, but Gandhi himself never won it, despite being nominated five times.
Other Controversial Choices
There were plenty of other controversial choices.
Among the most notable examples is Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). In 1994, he shared the prize with Israelis Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres for their work on the Oslo Accords.
However, many critics noted that while Arafat was head of Fatah, the PLO group engaged in acts of terrorism. Kare Kristiansen, a Norwegian member of the Nobel Committee, had said that Arafat was the “world’s most prominent terrorist.”
Also, the Israel-Palestine conflict did not end after the Oslo Peace Accords.
Similarly, Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Currently, he is heading a government in Bangladesh established in the aftermath of a coup. He is also witnessing Bangladesh backsliding on secularism and democracy, with minorities increasingly feeling insecure under his watch.
The Nobel Connection To US Presidents
In 1906, the winner was the US President Theodore Roosevelt. Incidentally, Norway gained independence just one year ago in 1905.
The decision to give the award to US President Roosevelt was widely believed to be an attempt to curry favor from a mighty nation.
In fact, so far, four U.S. presidents have won the award: Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter, and Barack Obama, all for dubious reasons.
However, none of them created as much controversy as Obama’s win in 2009, just months into his first term as president.
Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
Till then, Obama has achieved little, except generating hope. At that time, the US was involved in two foreign wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Nicholas Kristof wrote in the New York Times, “Obama’s work on the Middle East, mostly through Senator Mitchell’s efforts, are sensible but haven’t produced any results yet. They certainly don’t match the intensive efforts that Bill Clinton made with his Middle East peace negotiations in the fall of 2000. Likewise, Obama’s efforts on nuclear disarmament/non-proliferation are important, but they are purely an aspiration.”
Brian Becker, national coordinator of Act Now To Stop War and End Racism, had said in a Reuters report at the time, “This is the Nobel committee giving Obama the ‘you are not George W. Bush’ award.”
Trump has often complained that Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize for doing “practically nothing.”
Another controversial Nobel winner from the US was Henry Kissinger. He was given the award in 1973 for negotiating the Paris Peace Accords, which officially brokered a ceasefire to the Vietnam War.
However, the selection of Kissinger was heavily criticised as he had ordered a bombing of Hanoi during the negotiations for the truce. The New York Times called the award the ‘Nobel War Prize.’
Two members of the Nobel Peace Prize committee resigned in protest over Kissinger’s selection.
Given the selection of such unworthy people for a globally reputed Peace Prize, it won’t be surprising if Trump also wins it.
Ironic as it may sound, Trump is right to question that if Obama can get it, why not he?
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from the University of Sheffield, UK.
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- He can be reached at ahlawat.sumit85 (at) gmail.com
