Nobel Peace Prize: Origins, Purpose, And Selection

The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize is set to be announced on Friday, with the United States president Donald Trump eager to secure the honour. He insists he deserves the award but says that the Nobel Committee would find a way not to give him the Peace Prize, even if he ended seven wars. 

What is the Nobel Peace Prize?

When the Swedish businessman Alfred Nobel died in 1896, he left behind one of the largest private fortunes of his time. In his will, Nobel stated that his entire remaining estate, amounting to 31.5 million Swedish crowns, should be invested in secure financial instruments. The income from this fund was to be awarded annually as prizes to those who had, during the previous year, contributed the most to the benefit of humanity. Notably, Nobel had made much of his fortune by inventing the nitroglycerine-based explosive dynamite in 1867. 

The will specified in which fields the prizes should be awarded – physics, chemistry, medicine or physiology, literature and peace – and which criteria the respective prize committees should apply when choosing their prize recipients. According to the will, the Nobel Peace Prize was to be awarded “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses.”

The Selection Process 

A committee of five-members is selected by the Norwegian parliament to adjudicate the awards. Each year, the Norwegian Nobel Committee specifically invites qualified people to submit nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. The statutes of the Nobel Foundation specify categories of individuals who are eligible to make nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. 

A shortlist is created from the nominations which are considered by permanent advisers to the Nobel institute. Since March 1901, it has been awarded annually (with some exceptions) to people who have "done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.

The Oxford Dictionary of Contemporary History had described the prize as "the most prestigious prize in the world."

However, the Peace Prize has faced numerous controversies over the years. Critics have argued that some awards were politically motivated, granted prematurely, or based on a questionable interpretation of what truly constitutes work for peace.