The scandal called the Nobel Peace Committee

By Jan Oberg

Why? The EU is credited with making making peace in the Balkans while it made war in Bosnia unavoidable by prematurely recognizing Slovenia and Croatia out of old Yugoslavia. After that Bosnia could neither sit in Rest-Yugoslavia nor become independent without war.
EU countries are constantly involved in wars and interventions (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria). Two are nuclear weapons powers. The EU Treaty advocates military-industrial integration and stronger military defence; words such as disarmament, nonviolence, reconciliation, nuclear freedom, etc. do not appear even once in the treaty. EU has only military sections, nothing for civilian conflict-resolution and not even one peace academy. Again politicians give it to politicians, Nobel Committee chairman also S-G of the European Council!
There are more truthful reasons for Europe being more peaceful inside today: Brandt’s Ostpolitik, Kekkonen’s OSCE process, neutral countries’ policies, the 1980s peace movement, Gorbachev’s peaceful dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, Palme’s Common Security report, etc.
EU has done good things, of course – e.g. helped students to study in various universities and make friends. But that was not even mentioned among the reasons.
Nobel’s will is about disarmament and anti-militarism. Now the prize has been given to one of the most armed and militaristic regions of the world.
What now? Follow the will reasonably closely! Make a committee of peace-educated and otherwise competent theoreticians and practitioners – and send the present retired parliamentarians home. Today peace is a competence field, like economics or chemistry or medicine – and prizes for it shall not be decided by amateurs from one single country. Would you find it appropriate if retired politicians decided the prize in medicine or literature? Hardly! Why then is it OK with peace?
It is indeed a sign of progress that lots of media now question the way the Nobel Peace Prize is administered, or misused by the Committee. A few years ago most media just called it the most prestigious prize and had not read the will.

2 Responses to “The scandal called the Nobel Peace Committee”

  • Smajly83 says:

    NOBEL POLITICS PRIZE, because it’s all about politics and has no resemblance with peace.

  • This is a bold step towards the right direction. I wish it could be properly understood. Nobel peace prize is politicized. One of the worst things that could happen to people is to politicized peace. Is like playing around with people’s lives. We better listen to Jan Oberg,Nobel peace committee supposed to comprise of people learned in the field.

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