New book disturbs the peace prize
Print Edition
A WAR of words is tarnishing the staid Nobel Peace Prize committee just before its main task of picking a 2015 winner.
The five-member Norwegian committee is under an unwelcome spotlight after Geir Lundestad, its secretary for 25 years, questioned the wisdom of some prizes and poked criticism at many members in a book this month.
Lundestad revealed, for instance, that the 2009 prize to US President Barack Obama had failed to live up to the committee’s hopes, that one member almost quit at the award to climate campaigner and ex-US vice president Al Gore in 2007, and that one member spoke out against any prize for a pope.
In response to the book, “Secretary of Peace,” the committee issued a rare statement, accusing Lundestad of breaking a 50-year confidentiality rule.
The book piles pressure on the usually anonymous committee, which tries to cultivate an aura of Olympian detachment in judging world affairs, to pick a worthy winner this year for the 8 million Swedish crown (US$955,000) prize.
Thorbjoern Jagland, an ex-Norwegian prime minister and former committee chair who is still on the committee, hit out at Lundestad’s criticisms on national television.
“I am not sure it strengthens the (committee’s) reputation when he writes that the current leader (Kaci Kullmann Five) is weak, the previous one (Jagland) was actually a fool and the one before (Ole Danbolt Mjoes) hadn’t a clue about foreign policy.”
Other experts reckon the prize will rebound.
“It takes some of the mystery out of the prize,” said Kristian Berg Harpviken, head of the Peace Research Institute, Oslo. But he said the dispute may blow over.
Bookmakers have Pope Francis as favorite for his work for peace and environmental protection, ahead of candidates including Novaya Gazeta, a Russian newspaper critical of President Vladimir Putin.
Others are Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC leftist rebel commander Rodrigo Londono who pledged on September 23 to end a 50-year war within six months.
Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said people working with refugees from Syria might be honored.
Harpviken’s personal favorite is German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has spoken out on the need to change European asylum policy. The UN refugee agency UNHCR, which won in 1954 and 1981, could also be a contender.
Other nominees include former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden.
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