2c. Debates and Controversies

Each year when the NPP winner is announced, there are debates and opinions in the media about whether the choice was good or not. There are also controversies around the choices. Here are some examples:

For How Long Should Award Winners Have Proven Themselves as Peacemakers?

Some commentators argue that, like the other Nobel prizes, the peace prize should be awarded only after a career-long or significant period of time in peacemaking efforts and achievements. Barack Obama received the NPP in 2009 after barely a year as President of the United States. Many people critiqued this choice, including Obama himself, since he hadn’t yet proven his ability to advance peace in the world.

Should Leaders of States or Others Who Hold Political Office Be Eligible for the Prize?

Presidents and Prime Ministers, by the very nature of their office, lead the military forces of their nation, and might lead their country to war. One of the most controversial awards was in 1973 to Henry Kissinger, then U.S. Secretary of State, and Lê Đức Thọ, a Vietnamese politician, for their role in bringing a ceasefire to the Vietnam War. Kissinger was widely viewed as someone who advanced that conflict during his years in office, while Thọ refused the peace prize altogether (the only one to refuse it in NPP history).

What If the Award Recipient Becomes Associated with Violence or Repression, or Has a Checkered Past in That Regard?

There are certainly many statespersons on the Iist of laureates who have perpetrated war. I used to be a big fan of Aung San Suu Kyi, who led a nonviolent, pro-democracy movement in Myanmar (also known as Burma) while under house arrest for about 15 years. She won the NPP in 1991. Suu Kyi was released in 2010 and became head of government after her democratic political party won a major victory in the country’s 2015 elections. It was a student in this class on campus who introduced me to the other side of ‘The Lady,’ as she was called. Her reputation was tarnished when she did little to stop the horrific ethnic-cleansing against the Rohingya and other minorities in Myanmar. Some people called for a retraction of her Nobel Peace Prize. In 2018, the Canadian government voted to revoke her honorary citizenship.

One of the NPP Rules is That the Prize Cannot be Awarded to a Person Who is Dead.

This eliminates individuals who die suddenly during their peace work, or whose impact only gains recognition after their death. The most famous example of a person not being recognized for this reason is Mohandas K. Gandhi, leader of the nonviolent resistance movement in India during the mid-20th century. Gandhi was already known around the world when he was assassinated in 1948 and had been nominated for the prize five times. The decision of the NPP committee to not make an award that year is thought to be in honour of Gandhi who would have been the most deserving. You will learn more about Gandhi in a later module.

The Definition of ‘Peace’ Has Become Too Broad.

One critique that is highlighted in your reading by Metta Spencer on Who Deserves the Prize? comes from a Norwegian lawyer named Fredrik Heffermehl. He suggests that the NPP has departed from its original intent and become too broad in its understanding of peace. Heffermehl thinks that Alfred Nobel’s goal of global disarmament and creating laws and institutions that will prevent war between nations has been lost. Rather, in Spencer’s words, the NPP now goes to “all sorts of benign humanitarian deeds as manifestations of peace.”¹ Yet, I think the idea of peace itself has become much broader than a century ago.

The Committee That Makes the Decision is Not Very Diverse.

As noted earlier, the committee that makes a decision about the award is not very diverse – just five Norwegians – so how can it possibly represent the diversity of peacebuilding efforts across the globe. This critique of the decision-making process appears in Metta Spencer’s essay Who Deserves the Prize?

There is a Lack of Diversity Among Prize-winners.

The lack of diversity appears in several ways, gender being one of them. Although Bertha von Suttner received the NPP in 1905, the next female prize-winner was not named until 1931. Jane Addams, an American peace and social justice activist, represented the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, one of the longest-running peace organizations in the world. She was nominated ninety-one times before she won! Apparently, some thought she was too radical and had communist sympathies.

When you look through the list, you might think of other possible controversies.

While there are many debates and questions surrounding the selection process and decision regarding the Nobel Peace Prize, given the world-wide recognition of and interest in the prize, it is useful to view it as a gauge for how peacebuilding is understood over time. As well, it encourages us to think about how we measure the impact of peace movements.