Zippyjuan
10-07-2014, 01:39 PM
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/02/us-nobel-prize-idUSKCN0HR1GW20141002
(Reuters) - The head of the Nobel Peace Prize committee risks a unprecedented demotion after announcing the 2014 winner next week, part of wider changes that could both tilt the award to the right and dim chances for future U.S. presidents to win.
The Nobel season of the world's most coveted awards, each worth $1.1 million, opens on Monday with the medicine or physiology prize followed by physics, chemistry, peace and economics. The date for the literature prize has not been set.
Pope Francis, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, ex-U.S. spy contractor Edward Snowden and Denis Mukwege, a Congolese doctor who helps rape victims, are among bookmakers' favorites from a record field of 278 nominees for the peace prize.
In a shift that could influence future peace awards, Thorbjoern Jagland, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and a former Labor Prime Minister, risks being deposed by right-wing rivals after he announces the winner on Friday, Oct. 10.
Norway's parliament appoints the five-member committee and the Conservative-led coalition that won power in elections in 2013 will gain a 3-2 majority on the committee from 2015, reversing a 3-2 center-left majority under Jagland since 2009.
That could mean more prizes favored by Norway's right-wing, perhaps to little-known individuals fighting for democracy or human rights. Jagland seems to favor sweeping awards with a political flavor, including to U.S. President Barack Obama in 2009 or the European Union in 2012.
Another big shift will be the retirement at the end of the year of Geir Lundestad, the director of the Nobel Institute since 1990 and a professor specializing in American history. He attends all committee meetings but has no vote.
Kristian Harpviken, head of the Peace Research Institute, Oslo, detects Lundestad's influence behind an unusual run of U.S. prizes - to Obama, to former U.S. Vice President Al Gore in 2007 and to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in 2002.
The departure of Lundestad is likely to shift focus from the United States, whose citizens and organizations have won about a quarter of all prizes, he said.
"The obvious thing, if anything, would be to discriminate against American candidates," he said, adding that future U.S. presidents would be unlikely to win.
A committee dominated by the Conservatives and their allies might mean "much more emphasis on human rights, freedom of expression. We could potentially see a turn towards prizes which acknowledge the utility of armed force."
More at link.
(Reuters) - The head of the Nobel Peace Prize committee risks a unprecedented demotion after announcing the 2014 winner next week, part of wider changes that could both tilt the award to the right and dim chances for future U.S. presidents to win.
The Nobel season of the world's most coveted awards, each worth $1.1 million, opens on Monday with the medicine or physiology prize followed by physics, chemistry, peace and economics. The date for the literature prize has not been set.
Pope Francis, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, ex-U.S. spy contractor Edward Snowden and Denis Mukwege, a Congolese doctor who helps rape victims, are among bookmakers' favorites from a record field of 278 nominees for the peace prize.
In a shift that could influence future peace awards, Thorbjoern Jagland, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and a former Labor Prime Minister, risks being deposed by right-wing rivals after he announces the winner on Friday, Oct. 10.
Norway's parliament appoints the five-member committee and the Conservative-led coalition that won power in elections in 2013 will gain a 3-2 majority on the committee from 2015, reversing a 3-2 center-left majority under Jagland since 2009.
That could mean more prizes favored by Norway's right-wing, perhaps to little-known individuals fighting for democracy or human rights. Jagland seems to favor sweeping awards with a political flavor, including to U.S. President Barack Obama in 2009 or the European Union in 2012.
Another big shift will be the retirement at the end of the year of Geir Lundestad, the director of the Nobel Institute since 1990 and a professor specializing in American history. He attends all committee meetings but has no vote.
Kristian Harpviken, head of the Peace Research Institute, Oslo, detects Lundestad's influence behind an unusual run of U.S. prizes - to Obama, to former U.S. Vice President Al Gore in 2007 and to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in 2002.
The departure of Lundestad is likely to shift focus from the United States, whose citizens and organizations have won about a quarter of all prizes, he said.
"The obvious thing, if anything, would be to discriminate against American candidates," he said, adding that future U.S. presidents would be unlikely to win.
A committee dominated by the Conservatives and their allies might mean "much more emphasis on human rights, freedom of expression. We could potentially see a turn towards prizes which acknowledge the utility of armed force."
More at link.