The Nobel Prize announcements next week will honor a number of ground-breaking accomplishments, but with wars raging all over the world, experts asked about potential Peace Prize winners are baffled.
The centerpiece of the week of announcements, from October 2–9, will be the announcement of the Peace Prize in Oslo on October 6.
The world situation is undoubtedly gloomy, according to experts, since the conflict in Ukraine is already into its second year, superpower tensions are on the rise, and there have been a number of coups in Africa in recent years.
The Russian ambassador’s invitation to the Nobel award ceremony in Stockholm in December was recently canceled in response to irate protests, reflecting the tensions.
“In many ways it would be appropriate for the committee not to hand out any prize this year,” Swedish professor of international affairs Peter Wallensteen told AFP.
“It would be a good way of marking the seriousness of the world situation.”
The last time that happened was a half-century ago, in 1972 amid the Vietnam War.
To find no laudable candidate would these days be considered a failure. “It’s very hard to think that this could be the result,” the secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Olav Njolstad told AFP, “but I will not say it’s impossible.”
“The world really needs something that may point in a good direction. There is every need for the Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded even this year.”
Although the list of nominees is private, 351 people or organizations are known to be on it.
