The Norwegian Nobel Comitee

This year's nobel peace prize went to Barack Obama, as you all know by now. I personally find this odd, mildly put. But this continues a tradition of, what I and others see as using the peace prize as a foreign policy tool on behalf of Norway. Increasingly this also extends to attempts at influencing US policies in several different fields.

In a way this started just after George W. Bush was elected, when former president Jimmy Carter was awarded the prize in 2002. At the time many observers were critical and saw the prize as a comment on the militaristic policies of the Bush administration. (In extension you can also see it as a criticism of american politics in the entire Reagen-era, which extends into the first and second Bush administrations.)
Then of course there was Al Gore, in 2007. Gore of course ran against Bush in 2000, and lost (despite getting more votes). It doesn't take a genius to see that this could be interpreted as a direct criticism of Bush. Especially his environmental polices.
Yesterday it was announced that Bush's succesor Barack Obama is this years winner. Apparantly he was nominated after 11 days in office, which indicates to me that his main award winning effort was winning the presidency.

I find this pattern striking, and very slanted towards a certain political party in the states, whose popularity in Norway is marked by massive support every four years when there is an election over there. Hardly any norwegian politican would even consider throwing his support for the republican candidate. Norwegians even seem to suffer from the misguided notion that the democrats are some sort of social democratic party. Considering that the democrats are to the right of the norwegian conservative party on most issues, this notion is simply amusing.

Anway, let's take a look at the people awarding the prize, and the picture will become even clearer. (Do also remember that the member's are chosen by the norwegian parliament itself.)
The leader of the commitee is a Thorbjørn Jagland, a former politican for the norwegian labour party. In fact, he is a former prime minister, former leader of Labour, former minister of foreign affairs and so forth. Today, the day after voting on the nobel peace prize he is also set to take the chair as secretary general of the Council of Europe. Hardly a neutral observer.
The next member of the commitee is Kaci K. Five. She is the former leader of the consercative party in Norway. Another former politican, who served several terms in the norwegian parliament, where she was a member of the committee on foreign affairs.
Then there is Sissel Rønbeck. Another former politican, and this one also a labour politician, with three terms in the norwegian parliament and two years as leader of the Labour party's youth movement.
The fourth member is the least conspicous one, having only served a single term in the parliament, for the ultra right wing progressive party. Still, another politican.
The fifth, and last member more than compensates however. Ågot Valle having served three terms for the socialist left party, as a member of the foreign affairs committee for two of these.
Among the three stand in members of the committee, we find a former minister of foreign affairs (who also served as ambassador to the United states for six years), and two former parliamentary politicans.

With such close ties to official norwegian political life I guess it would be safe to say that the prize is not beyond criticism. In fact I would go as far as saying that it seriously detracts from the prize's legitimacy and credibility. This year's award of course marking the apex in a string of obviously political awards. It is saddening to see how Alfred Nobel's original intention has been hijacked by state interests.

And now I'm not even touching the important subject of whether this year's laureate actually deserves the prize. That is a whole other blog, and a rather lengthy one at that. But shortly put: when your police uses rubber bullets against peaceful protesters, you don't deserve an award, you deserve to be deposed.