[praptak]

While I'm fond of any form of flipping the NSA-backing US administration the bird, the Nobel Peace prize has not enough reputation to matter in this context.

Al Gore got it for raising awareness of climate change. Obama got that for not being Bush. Even if Snowden gets it, it doesn't really matter.

[netcan]

Yasser Arafat & Yitzhak Rabin were awarded it, its not clear if they intended to create a peace, but they did not. Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho were awarded it. Henry Kissinger meanwhile embarked on a major bombing campaign and Le Duc Tho declined the honour.

They've made premature or outright bad calls before.

[reuven]

I don't think that the Peace Prize is only meant for people who have made tangible changes in the amount of violence in the world. It's also a carrot that you can dangle in front of people to reward them for taking risks in the interest of reducing violence.

Rabin and Arafat (and Peres) tried, with the Oslo accords, to move toward a settlement of a long-standing, violent dispute. They didn't completely succeed. And indeed, you could argue (as many do) that the Oslo accords were a mistake. But they were willing to take risks in order to perhaps make things more peaceful for their people, and that's the sort of thing that the Nobel Committee wanted to reward.

Of course, now that I've described things in this way, maybe Snowden is an appropriate recipient...

[adharmad]

That sounds like the kindergarten definition of "Prize" - which is given to incentivize the person to do something as opposed to after he has actually achieved something of worth.

[netcan]

..assuming they were acting in good faith, which they have always accused eachother of doing. Kissinger and Le Duc Tho were certainly not acting in good faith. In any case, the official criteria is:

"done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.*

IMO it should be like the other Nobel Prizes, awarded later when the things have settled. The Science prizes were changed to include a lag allowing for discoveries to face scientific rigor for a while. I think they should adopt the same policy. Wait until a war ends before handing out a prize to those who end it.

[aroman]

>Yasser Arafat & Yitzhak Rabin were awarded it, its not clear if they intended to create a peace, but they did not.

I'm sorry, what? You aren't sure if Rabin and Arafat "intended to create peace"? What exactly do you think they were intending?

[Joeboy]

People on both sides of the Israel vs Palestine discourse tend to accuse the other side of acting in bad faith. And the various "Peace Processes" have generally been a result of pressure from outside the region.

[aroman]

>the various "Peace Processes" have generally been a result of pressure from outside the region.

What makes you say this? You don't think the Israelis and the Palestinians actually want peace (albeit on their own terms)?

[efuquen]

I think plenty Israelis want the Palestinians gone from Palestine and I think plenty Palestinians want Isreal erased from the map. When that is the goal of both parties, no I don't see them wanting peace.

Of course, we're making a huge generalization here, plenty of people on both sides don't have this as their goal and certainly want peace, which can only be achieved through coexistence. But when coexistence is not your goal, when the ideal terms for both parties is the dissolution of the other, then no; there can really be no peace.

Edit: btw I'm not really talking about the specifics of Yasser Arafat & Yitzhak Rabin listed by the OP, just your statement, which implied something more general then just those two.

[Dylan16807]

In an abstract sense they both want peace. That does not mean that they are actively working to reach a peaceful situation.

There is a very large gap between wanting something and being willing to truly prioritize it and sacrifice for it for the common good.

[Joeboy]

Of course they do, but clearly the Oslo Accords (for which Arafat and Rabin won their Nobel) were a product of US intervention. Concessions to the enemy are rarely a vote winner.

[ekianjo]

Obama got it before he did anything at all. By default. And in retrospect hes not that different from Bush.

[thomasfl]

> Obama got that for not being Bush

That's probably what he's is going to be remembered for. Poor guy.

[brazzy]

There are a whole lot of worse things one might be remembered for. Being Bush, for one.

[ItendToDisagree]

Or being the guy who 'legitimized' the drone war and killing of American citizens without a trial. Institutionalizing the president's power to decide who dies under the "disposition matrix" (kill list).

Note: Not saying Anwar al-Awlaki was a good guy, or blameless, or anything of the sort. But it is still killing an American citizen from afar without so much as a thought of a trial.

[CWuestefeld]

I'm with you, right up to the point of "an American citizen". As I see it, the right to a speedy jury trial, etc., don't come from being a citizen. These things came from the natural rights philosophy that Madison and others viewed the world through when creating our Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Hence, the right to a trial comes simply from the fact of being a person. No citizenship or residency required.

(I grant that reconciling this with acts of war makes it much more murky)

[ItendToDisagree]

Agreed. It just makes it even more egregious, being that a citizen doesn't even get that right, which is written into the Constitution.

[sergiotapia]

In all honesty, Obama got it for being the first black president - it was a HUGE deal, remember that.

[jfc]

What do you mean, "in all honesty"? Unless you were privvy to the evaluative processes for the award, what you're saying is pure speculation.

[return0]

No, they gave it to him "for his 'extraordinary efforts' to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".

At least if they had given it to him for being black, they wouldn't be lying through their teeth

[blisterpeanuts]

They should have waited 3-4 years to see if he would actually accomplish something beyond getting elected. I'm not saying he didn't accomplish anything, but traditionally a great honor is bestowed for achievements past, not potential achievements.

[krzyk]

I assume that there are a lot of black presidents e.g. in Africa, I don't think a lot of them got that award.

[sergiotapia]

Don't be unnecessarily obtuse - of course I meant the first black US president.

[tunap]

That is a good point. A step in the right direction for humankind.

The problem is, despite appearances, the new boss is the same as the old boss.

[dinkumthinkum]

That's pretty ridiculous. You are really misrepresenting what happened. Sure, you can say it was little more than for a promissory note of peace, which is what people were saying at the time but this is just too much.

[Agathos]

On that note, even Bush got nominated at least once... for not not being Bush.