Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize (where Nobel is pronounced with the stress on the latter syllable) is one of five Nobel Prizes bequested by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. According to the will of Alfred Nobel the prize should be awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses".

Controversy

A particular claimed weakness of the Nobel Peace Prize awarding process is the swiftness of recognition. The scientific and literature Nobel prizes are usually issued in retrospect, often two or three decades after the intellectual achievement, thus representing a time-proven confirmation and balance of approval by the established academic community, seldom contradicted by newer developments. In contrast, the Nobel Peace prize at times takes the form of summary judgment, being issued in the same year as or the year immediately following the political act. Some commentators have suggested that to award a peace prize on the basis of unquantifiable contemporary opinion is unjust or possibly erroneous. This situation may be said to deprive the 'real' peace makers, who may not be recognised for their long-term or subtle approaches. However, others have pointed to the uniqueness of the Peace prize in that its high profile can often focus world attention on particular problems and possibly aid in the peace-efforts themselves. When looked at more closely, the peace-laureates often have a lifetime's history of working at and promoting humanitarian issues, as in the examples of Mother Theresa, a Christian Missionary of foreign origin (1979 Laurate) and Aung San Suu Kyi (1991 Laureate).

Related Topics:
Retrospect - Summary judgment - Uniqueness - Mother Theresa - Aung San Suu Kyi

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