Preemptive peace-prizing

The Nobel Committee’s decision to award the Peace Prize to the European Union this year has confirmed my fear that the venerable organization has fallen into the unfortunate habit of using the award for political well-wishing.

What they should do is honor individuals who are actively making meaningful contributions toward conflict resolution, the alleviation of human suffering and the promotion of human rights.

Alfred Nobel created the prize in part to promote ongoing peace efforts.
The prize was first awarded in 1901 to pacifist Frédéric Passy and Jean Henry Dunant, founder of the International Red Cross.

Since then it has been awarded to Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Elie Wiesel and other remarkable individuals who have risked life and limb and devoted years of work to their causes.

It seems that the Nobel Committee has forgotten this, and sadly this isn’t the first time the committee took a turn for the absurd.

Who can forget 2009 when the prize went to President Barack Obama? The president was freshly sworn-in and with barely a single accomplishment to his name.

The committee chairman, who hoped to give the president a commitment toward peace, admitted that the award “may not bear fruit at all.”

How prescient.

This year, the committee said that the EU has contributed to the “advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.”

The timing belies the intent.

I can’t help but envision the EU as a man on a ledge with the Nobel committee below shouting “But think of all the good you’ve done.”

If there was ever a time to give the prize to a pan-European organization, it would have been in 1957.

At that time six countries formed the European Economic Community to
promote trade and unity among them.

In all kinds of troubled and impoverished corners of the world, there are activists and courageous local politicians who have gone above and beyond expectations and deserve international recognition to continue their efforts.

Meanwhile, just as getting a Nobel Prize didn’t prevent Obama from sending more troops to Afghanistan and bypassing the congressional representatives of the American people to intervene militarily in Libya, it is unlikely to faze either Athenian rioters or German austerity advocates.

­— danoconn@indiana.edu