Barack Obama Nobel Prize for what. Obama demands return of Nobel Peace Prize

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US President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. The prize was awarded to him for his outstanding efforts in the field of international diplomacy, the reduction of nuclear weapons and the creation of a new climate of cooperation between peoples, Interfax explains.

“Obama’s diplomacy is based on the concept that those people who should rule the world should do so based on the values ​​and positions shared by the majority of the world’s population,” RIA Novosti quotes a statement from the Nobel Committee. “Dialogue and negotiation are the preferred tools for resolving even the most complex international conflicts,” the committee notes.

Aides woke Obama and informed him of the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision when it was 5 a.m. in Washington. The President called the decision to award him the Nobel Prize a “great honor,” the White House told reporters.

According to tradition, the Nobel Committee informs him of its decision by telephone about an hour before the announcement of the laureate's name. However, this did not happen in the case of Obama due to the time difference.

This year, a record 172 individuals and 33 organizations were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Experts trying to guess the future laureate named Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba, Jordanian Prince Ghazi Ben Muhammad and Afghan human rights activist Sima Samar as favorites. No one could guess that the prize would go to Barack Obama.

The award will be presented to the American President in Oslo on December 10. He is also entitled to a cash reward - 10 million Swedish kronor, that is, 1.4 million US dollars.

Obama Accepts Nobel Prize as Call to Action

US President Barack Obama accepts the Nobel Prize as a call to action and wants to see the whole world involved in the fight against the challenges of the new century. He stated this while speaking Friday in the White House Rose Garden in connection with his high award.

At the very beginning, Obama admitted that the decision of the Nobel Committee came as a surprise to him. According to him, the award was a “surprise and honor” for him, and emphasized that he accepts “this award as a call to action,” ITAR-TASS reports.

Obama also does not view the award "as recognition of his own merits." According to him, it is rather a recognition of the goals that he has identified for the United States and the whole world. "I don't believe I deserve the right to be in the same company as so many people who have received this award," Obama said.

He expressed confidence that the challenges of the 21st century cannot be “resolved by one leader or one people.” Obama noted that his "administration is working to create a new era in which all nations must take responsibility for the peace we strive for."

The American leader also stressed that “we cannot accept the growing threat of climate change, which can destroy the world we leave to our children, destroy coastlines and devastate cities.” He called on all countries to “take their share of responsibility” to transform energy options.

In addition, Obama called on people to be tolerant of people of other races and religions and to behave "on the basis of mutual interests and mutual respect." He also stressed the need to "do everything possible to resolve the conflicts that have caused so much pain for many years." According to him, this, in particular, implies "an unwavering commitment to finally realize the rights of all Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security."

“Some of these tasks will not be achieved during my presidential term. Some of them, for example, the destruction of nuclear weapons, may not be achieved even in my lifetime. But I know that these goals can be achieved,” the American leader emphasized.

Barack Obama will travel to Oslo in early December to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs confirmed Friday. He also said that Obama intends to use the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to him for charitable purposes. The White House has not yet specified which projects the funds will be transferred to.

Gibbs also said the president has not yet decided whether he will attend the climate change summit, which will be held from December 7 to 18 in Copenhagen.

Barack Hussein Obama is the 44th President of the United States. The Democratic senator from Illinois was elected head of state in November 2008 and became America's first black president. During the election campaign, Obama enjoyed such popularity that the press unanimously spoke of “Obamamania” sweeping the country.

Barack Obama has been in power for only nine months, but during this time he has actively shown himself on the international stage. Obama announced a reversal of the foreign policy of his presidential predecessor, George W. Bush. He promised to establish a constructive dialogue with the Islamic world, which during the years of Bush's presidency had become extremely hostile towards the United States. Obama has advocated a peaceful settlement in the Middle East, although he has no concrete achievements in this area yet.

Barack Obama announced a plan to withdraw troops from Iraq, but at the same time decided to intensify military operations in Afghanistan. By the end of the year, another 5,000 will join the 63,000 American soldiers fighting the Taliban. This year has become the bloodiest for Western coalition troops in Afghanistan since the overthrow of the Taliban regime. The White House is not currently considering a troop withdrawal.

In September, Obama abandoned plans to establish missile defense bases in Eastern Europe, which had caused significant Russian concern. The Obama administration also intends to sign a new strategic arms limitation treaty with the Russian Federation to replace the START I treaty, which expires in December 2009.

Nobel Peace Prize (REFERENCE)

The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded in Norway since 1901. The first Nobel Peace Prize laureates were Swiss Jean-Henri Dunant, an entrepreneur and public figure who founded the International Committee of the Red Cross, and French economist Frederic Passy, ​​founder and first leader of the International Peace League.

At various times, US President Theodore Roosevelt, black rights activist Martin Luther King, diplomat Henry Kissinger, and Mother Teresa became Nobel Peace Prize laureates. Among Russians, the Nobel Peace Prize was received by USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev (in 1990) and academician Andrei Sakharov (in 1975).

Representatives of the Norwegian Nobel Committee have different opinions about who should receive the high award, says Kommersant. One group on the committee believes that awards should be given to worthy but completely unknown people, preferably from third world countries. Another believes that the committee should respond to political events in the world and encourage forces that seem positive to it. Previously, according to an unspoken tradition, winners from the two categories alternated, but now for the third year the award has been received by a famous politician.

Last year the prize went to Martti Ahtisaari, former president of Finland and UN special envoy for Kosovo. In 2007, former US Vice President Al Gore received the award.

Of the current US presidents, only two received the award. In 1906, Republican Theodore Roosevelt was awarded for brokering the Treaty of Portsmouth, ending the Russo-Japanese War. The 1919 prize was received by the Republican Woodrow Wilson, one of the creators of the Treaty of Versailles, signed after the First World War, and the ideological inspirer of the League of Nations. Democrat Jimmy Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, 21 years after leaving the White House, for his "efforts to peacefully resolve conflicts around the world and fight for human rights."

Brief biography of Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama Jr. was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii. His father is Kenyan and his mother is white American. Parents separated in 1963. In 1976, Obama moved to Indonesia, and in 1980 he returned to Hawaii, where he graduated from private school. He entered Los Angeles Occidental College, from where he transferred to Columbia University, where he graduated in 1983 (specializing in international relations). In 1991 he graduated from Harvard Law School. He practiced law and worked as part of a charity group, helping the poor.

Obama's political career began in the Illinois State Senate, where he represented the Democratic Party for eight years (1997-2004). He gained national fame in 2004 after he gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention in which he called for a renewal of political life.

In January 2005, he was first elected to the US Senate, becoming its only black senator. He was a member of the Foreign Affairs, Veterans Affairs, Health, Education and Pensions Committees, as well as the Governmental Affairs Committee. Author and co-author of numerous bills and resolutions.

On February 10, 2007, Obama officially announced his entry into the presidential race. Obama chose Senator Joseph Biden as his vice presidential candidate. After being approved on August 28, 2008 at the Democratic Party Convention as a candidate for US President, he became the first African American in US history to head the election list of one of the leading political parties.

Barack Obama is the author of Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope. He received a Grammy Award for the audio versions of these books in 2006 and 2008. In April 2009, he received the British Book Awards in the category “Best Biography of the Year” for “Dreams from My Father.”

For the past twenty years, Obama belonged to the Protestant United Church of Christ, but in May 2008 he announced his departure from it due to the controversial sermons of the rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Chicago, Jeremiah Wright, whom he had long called his spiritual mentor. Since 1992, Obama has been married to Michelle Robinson Obama, a practicing lawyer. They have two daughters - Malia and Sasha. According to Obama, his main hobbies are basketball and poker.

The decision made by the Norwegian Nobel Committee was a complete surprise: Obama has been president of the United States for less than nine months, and he was not even named among the most likely candidates.

More details

According to the official wording of the Nobel Committee, Obama was awarded for "tremendous efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation among peoples."

The German online publication Spiegel Online quotes the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Thorbjørn Jagland: “Everything he began to do since the beginning of his presidency, and the way he changed the atmosphere around the world, is already enough reason to award him the Nobel Prize.” .

Jagland emphasized that the prize was awarded to Obama not for future achievements, but for achievements during his presidency. "His diplomacy is based on the principle that those who govern the world should do so on the basis of the values ​​and perceptions shared by the majority of the world's population."

The award is 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.4 million). The award will be presented in Oslo on December 10.

Obama is the third American Democratic politician to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in the last seven years. Before him, the prize was awarded to Jimmy Carter in 2002 and Al Gore in 2007 for their efforts to preserve the planet's climate.

In principle, the Nobel Peace Prize is one of the most problematic awards, because the criteria are not very defined, and the political component in it certainly plays a big role. I think Obama was able to win the Nobel Prize this year because he was the most promising politician. He proposed the most optimistic program for nuclear disarmament and improving the situation in the world. Now in the world there is a terrible hunger for some kind of positive. And Obama is now positive, probably the only leader on the world stage who is positive.

We live in a world of political losers: the latest initiatives of world leaders have failed, they have proposed some wild and unsuccessful things. Against their background, Obama proposed a model that could be successful. The system of control over nuclear weapons in the world collapsed with the end of the Cold War, Bush did not lift a finger, nor did the Russian leaders - no one did anything. We are now on the verge of turning this world nuclear: many countries have a nuclear bomb, plus many are technically capable of creating one. Nuclear weapons are becoming cheaper, the technology can be bought, and some experts even predict that this technology will soon fall into the hands of organized crime. The fact that Obama tried to reverse this trend, his desire to create a new system of control over nuclear weapons and prevent global nuclearization of the world, the very idea of ​​​​the possibility of a way out of this situation, apparently inspired everyone so much that he was given a prize.

Of course, the fact that he was awarded the Nobel Prize is an advance. The advance is needed so that Obama cannot abandon this goal. Having launched an anti-nuclear initiative, he acquired many opponents in America.

In part, the Nobel Prize was awarded to him in order to support him in the fight against his own establishment and make him a hostage to his own proposals. In America, there are different attitudes towards Obama's initiatives. Many believe that he is weakening American security by proposing nuclear disarmament, which is contrary to American national interests. And there is fear in the world that pressure on Obama within America will lead to him being forced to abandon his proposals. Therefore, it seems to me that in fact the Nobel Prize may become a “point of no return” for him.

It seems to me that after the Nobel Prize it will be more difficult for Obama. He will have less room to maneuver. The effect of Obama receiving the award may vary. On the one hand, international recognition is important for American public opinion. Because in America they don’t really understand how Obama is viewed abroad. On the other hand, many Americans do not like their political leaders to be so enthusiastically received abroad.

The Nobel Prize partly makes him a hostage to his own promises. Above all, promises to make it a priority to restore control over the spread of nuclear weapons, which was destroyed during the Cold War. In the end, he even supported the idea of ​​“global zero” - the gradual complete abandonment of nuclear weapons. Many in America believe that this would fundamentally undermine US security and make America much more vulnerable. Many believe that Obama looks like a weakling on the international stage by proposing such things and weakening America's position in the world. America is now so strong militarily that no one can compare with it. It never occurs to anyone to step on US national interests, because the advantage is colossal. The smaller this advantage is, the more there will be a desire to start putting pressure on America.

Obama is trying to change the model from dominance to leadership. And many Americans believe that dominance is a more effective model than global leadership.

Everyone knows who Barack Obama is. True, the full version of his name is unexpected for most: Barack Hussein Obama Jr. It is quite difficult to believe that a man named Hussein became the President of the United States of America, but this is the truth of life. In less than two presidential terms, Obama managed to take many actions that were hotly discussed both within the United States and abroad. But one of the liveliest topics of discussion is the discussion of why Barack Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Question one: who is Barack Obama?

Who is Barack Hussein Obama Jr., born on August 4, 1961 in the Hawaiian Islands, that is, in the United States? So, we are talking about the forty-fourth and current president of the United States of America. He was first elected to this post as a representative of the Democratic Party during the 2008 presidential election and joined it in January 2009, replacing Republican John W. Bush.

Obama was re-elected to a second presidential term in 2012 and served from the beginning of 2013 until it expired in January 2017. According to the US Constitution, one person cannot be elected president more than twice. So Obama will be replaced in the Oval Office of the White House in 2017 by someone else.

Barack Obama has a unique achievement - he was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Since the winners of this award are announced in advance, Obama received it in October 2009, that is, less than 9 months after taking office as president. Moreover, the prize was awarded to him with the wording “for extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

During this time, Barack Obama managed to take the following actions, which can be attributed to the topic specified in the formulation of the Nobel Committee.

• First, he signed an order to close within a year the notorious prison for suspected terrorists located at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
• Secondly, even during the election campaign as a presidential candidate, Obama actively promised that, if elected, he would withdraw all American troops from Iraq by mid-2009.
• Thirdly, Obama advocated establishing a dialogue with Iran, with which America has not maintained diplomatic relations for more than thirty years. True, after taking office, Barack Obama changed his views on the Iraqi problem. To begin with, he changed the expected deadline for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq to mid-2010 (in the end this was not achieved). Then in February 2009 he issued a decree to increase the American contingent in Iraq by 17 thousand troops. And after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, he sent another 30 thousand soldiers to Iraq.

Question two: what is the Nobel Peace Prize?

The picture of Barack Obama's foreign policy activities in 2009 is generally clear. What about the Nobel Peace Prize? This nomination of the annual prestigious prizes awarded by the Nobel Committee is the most controversial and, as many believe, politicized.

With the Nobel Prizes in literature, physics, chemistry, mathematics and other areas of scientific and humanitarian knowledge, everything is more or less clear. And around the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded since 1901, controversy almost always flares up to varying degrees of severity. Following the letter of the Nobel Committee's statutes, the Peace Prize can be awarded to individuals or organizations that have made the most outstanding contribution to peace during the current year.

The rules for nominating candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize are the most democratic; candidates can be nominated by members of parliaments and governments, members of international courts, rectors, directors and humanities professors of higher educational and scientific institutions, Nobel Prize laureates, members of prize-winning organizations, current and former members and advisors to the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

It is curious that one of the most famous fighters for peace between people and a supporter of the principles of non-violence, Mahatma Gandhi, never received the Nobel Peace Prize - he was nominated 12 times, but each time other, more “worthy” candidates were chosen. On the other hand, “peacemakers” such as Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler were nominated for the Peace Prize in 1935 and 1939, respectively. Immediately before Barack Obama, this award was received in 2007 by US Vice President Al Gore, and in 2008 by Finnish diplomat Martti Ahtisaari, the author of the plan according to which Kosovo gained independence from Serbia.

Question three: why Barack Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize together

This is what raises the biggest questions among many representatives of the international community: how the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a man who did not fulfill his election promises to withdraw troops from Iraq within six months. Not only did he not comply, but he also brought additional troops into the occupied country. And then, already in the status of a “Nobel peacemaker,” he not only increased the American military presence in Iraq, but as the head of the United States played a big role in starting the civil war in Libya (directly through military operations) and in Syria (through pressure on the Syrian government).

In addition, experts note the clear support from the United States for the revolutions that took place in the Arab world at the turn of the first and second decades of the 21st century, which led to bloody violent confrontation (especially in Egypt).

To find logic in the actions of the Nobel Committee when awarding the Peace Prize to Barack Obama, we need to remember that, as follows from history, this prize was not always awarded to real peacemakers. In addition, in 2009 there was another nuance - the possibility of signing a new Treaty on the Reduction of Strategic Offensive Arms between Russia and the United States was widely discussed. This treaty was an initiative of the Obama administration, so that in the eyes of the progressive European public, the American president could look like a fighter for a safer world, in which there would be fewer nuclear weapons.

However, in the end, the signing of a full-fledged Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty did not take place, and after a sharp cooling in US-Russian relations in 2014, the prospects for such an agreement decreased significantly. Meanwhile, some members of the Nobel Peace Committee, for example, Thorbieri Jagland, are already advocating that Barack Obama return the Peace Prize to the Committee as a person whose actions as head of state are in sharp conflict with the principles for which it is awarded.

Alexander Babitsky

A petition has appeared on the White House website calling on US President Barack Obama to return the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to him in 2009.

The petition condemns the US President's aggressive policies towards the countries of the Middle East, aimed at "regime change." In particular, it is said that military operations in Libya and Syria brought nothing but human losses.

In September, former director of the Nobel Institute Geer Lundestad said that US President Barack Obama, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, did not live up to the expectations placed on him. "Many of Obama's supporters think this was a mistake," Lundestad said. “The presentation of the prize did not give the result that the committee members expected.”

Then Barack Obama himself was surprised by the committee's decision. Senior presidential adviser David Axelrod, commenting on this event and responding to the remark “the world community is shocked,” said: “So are we.”

Of course, “the world was surprised when President Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize.” But in 2009, the prize was seen as a reward for a leader who had put forward an ambitious plan to roll back America's militaristic foreign policy.

Six years later, even many of Obama's supporters doubt whether he deserves the award. In his memoirs, Geir Lundestad, the director of the Nobel Institute who left his post last year, wrote that awarding the prize to Obama "was only partly correct."

"Even many of Obama's supporters believed it was a mistake," he writes.

“Essentially, it was not possible to achieve what the committee hoped for”...

There have been plenty of complaints about Obama over the past 6 years. Consider the president's drone program, which is regularly criticized for its lack of transparency and accountability. Especially given the incomplete intelligence data, when the government cannot give a clear answer as to who the next victim will be. "Most of the people killed are not on the list, and the government doesn't know their names," Mika Zenko, a researcher at the Council on Foreign Relations, told the New York Times.

Obama is accused of failing to keep his campaign promise to close Guantanamo Bay and failing to act decisively on the Syrian crisis.

The "leader of the free world" has some successes while in office: securing the Iran nuclear deal despite much Republican opposition - earning him plaudits from security, diplomacy and nuclear energy experts. He also ended the war in Afghanistan and withdrew the bulk of American troops from Iraq - although the latter were mired there as if in a swamp.

“With ISIS walking around the world and defiantly disobeying Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. This picture suggests that the current administration could have done more to keep Iraq from catastrophe. But, of course, there is no evidence that the presence of US troops would influence the consolidation or collapse of the state,” Jason Brownlee, a professor at the University of the Middle East in Texas, tells the Washington Post.

Speaking about Obama's legacy, Nikhil Singh, a professor of social and cultural analysis at New York University, told New York Magazine in January of this year: “Obama was also hooked on overt US military action, just as George W. Bush was. What did he do to put his theses into practice, and even more so to change the existing situation? “Issuing memorandums against torture instead of bringing the executioners to justice?”

“Behavior like this condemns us to an uncertain future or, worse, a new round of dirty wars. Such ambivalence can be seen as a kind of achievement, an achievement not yet clear to the Obama administration, which can be called a banal extension of the Bush-Cheney policy. Obama's legacy is not yet set in stone, but it will extend beyond periods of war and peace,” writes Think Progress.

Thorborn Jagland, chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize committee, said President Obama today "really needs to think seriously" about immediately returning the Nobel Peace Prize.

Jagland, in the presence of four other committee members, said they had never before asked for the return of the peace prize, "not even to damned war criminals like Kissinger." But the reduction of the military contingent in Afghanistan by “as much as” 10% significantly ended the period when “it was still possible to behave without remembering that you were a Peace Prize winner. Guantanamo Bay remains open. Libya was bombed. Bin Laden was blown up instead of being brought to trial. Now it has been decided to send several American soldiers home... but the US goal of occupying Afghanistan remains unchanged. And don’t even think about Yemen!”

The committee awarded the prize to Obama in 2009 after he made a series of speeches in his first months in office: on “creating a new climate of multilateral diplomacy... ...emphasizing the role of the United Nations...dialogue and negotiation as tools for resolving international conflicts... and the future of a world free of nuclear weapons."

Members of the Nobel Committee listened again and again to Obama's speech in Cairo, raising their glasses to a glorious future: a black man leading America and the world into a new era of peace, hope and goodwill. “Within a few hours, it was as if we were 18-year-old students again at the beautiful and sunny University of Bergen! Oh, how we cried with joy!”

The Chairman says that "the Committee does not intend the penalty of getting the award back because they still like Obama, and that sending the medal back in a box by snail mail could help avoid the embarrassment of having to publicly return the award... The White House has refused comments,” writes The Final Edition.

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to US President Barack Obama in 2009 was met with criticism in the US itself. Many argued that he did nothing worthy of the award. Geir Lundestad explains the committee's decision by saying that he hoped to strengthen the position of the new president with an award.

“No Nobel Peace Prize has ever received as much attention as Barack Obama's in 2009,” Lundestad writes.

“Now even Obama supporters believe that the award was a mistake. In the sense that the committee did not achieve what it hoped for.”

Obama received the award from the hands of the Chairman of the Nobel Committee T. Jagland. It is known that at first Obama did not intend to personally go to the Norwegian capital to receive the award.

His staff wondered if there were any precedents for laureates skipping the ceremony. But this only happened occasionally, for example when dissidents were detained by their governments. “The White House then quickly realized that they had to go,” the WashingtonTimes quotes Lundestad.

It is significant that the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 to former US Vice President Al Gore and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change led to the resignation of one of the committee members. According to the rules of the Nobel Committee, the shortlist of candidates for the prize and all the circumstances surrounding the award must remain secret for half a century.

The Nobel Peace Prize has been the most controversial award throughout its history. Critics say the award has become too politicized; Obama's case is not the first time that a person's contributions to peace have fallen short of the award's high status.

Elena Khanenkova

* Terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation.

On the eve of the traditional Nobel week, during which the names of new laureates are announced annually in early October, the most famous prize in the world found itself at the center of a scandal.

Lundenstad was director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute from 1990 to 2015, which allowed him to attend meetings of the committee of authorized experts who decided on the award of the Nobel Peace Prize. At the same time, Lundenstad himself did not have the right to vote.

In 1897, the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which is responsible for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize, became the first of the organizations formed in accordance with the will Alfred Nobel. At the same time, the presentation of the Peace Prize, like other Nobel Prizes, began in 1901.

The Nobel Peace Prize has been the most controversial award throughout its history. According to critics, this award turned out to be too politicized, and its presentation to certain individuals was often completely inconsistent with their deeds.

Obama didn't want to receive his award

According to the rules of the Nobel Committee, the short list of candidates for the award, as well as all the circumstances surrounding the award, must remain secret for 50 years.

The book, the official presentation of which took place on September 17, caused extreme dissatisfaction among members of the Nobel Peace Prize committee. According to them, Lundenstad's work improperly included “descriptions of people and processes in the committee,” contrary to a confidentiality agreement signed in 2014. At the same time, the statement does not indicate possible measures that could be taken against the ex-director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute.

Lundenstad's book, in particular, reveals the details of the sensational award of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 to a man just beginning his first presidential term. US President Barack Obama.

The award to Obama surprised not only the US president's opponents, but also his supporters. The Obama administration approached the Norwegian Nobel Committee about the possibility of avoiding travel to the award ceremony in Oslo. Previously, such failures to appear occurred mainly in cases where the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to one of the dissidents who were deprived of the right to leave their own countries.

The reward is not for pontiffs

In his book, Lundenstad also writes that another committee member Gunnar Staalsett was extremely skeptical about the idea of ​​awarding the Peace Prize to the pontiffs of the Catholic Church. To date, not a single pope has been awarded the award.

The former director of the Norwegian Nobel Committee also spoke about attempts by politicians to directly interfere in the process of awarding prizes. In 2010, the head of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry Jonas Gahr Støre urged committee members not to award the award to a Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. As the minister stated, this could ruin Norwegian-Chinese relations. Nevertheless, the award to Liu Xiaobo was still awarded.

The head of the Nobel committee was afraid of political consequences

Lundenstad also criticized his activities as chairman of the Nobel committee Thorbjørn Jagland, who has also been the Secretary General of the Council of Europe since 2009. According to the author of the book, the Nobel committee should remain completely politically independent, while Jagland, as Secretary General of the Council of Europe, was often guided by possible political consequences when awarding the prize. For example, Lundenstad argues, it would be difficult for the head of the Nobel committee to agree to awarding the prize if such a decision were critical of Russia, a member of the Council of Europe.

Geir Lundenstad believes that the Nobel Peace Prize must strive for greater openness in order to maintain its authority. But for now, former colleagues of the author of the new book are concerned with another question - how to make sure that no one else breaks the accepted regime of half a century of silence. The people who award the Nobel Prizes prefer to keep their “skeletons in the closet.”