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THE WORLD'S MOST PRESTIGIOUS PRIZE
Most Nobel prizes - physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and economics - are awar-
ded every October in Stockholm, but the most prestigious prize of all, the Peace Prize, is
reserved for Oslo. In his will in 1895, Alfred Nobel, the Swedish founder of the prize and
the inventor of dynamite, instructed that the interest on his vast fortune be awarded each
year 'to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on
mankind'.
It is unclear why Nobel chose Norway to administer the Peace Prize, but whatever the
reason, it is a committee of five Norwegians, appointed for six-year terms by the Norwegi-
an storting (parliament), that chooses the winner each year. Their meetings, held in a
room of the Nobel Institute ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ) that is decorated with the pictures of
winners past, from Mother Teresa (1979) to Mikhail Gorbachev (1990) and Al Gore
(2007), are closed-door affairs presided over by the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel
Committee, Thorbjørn Jagland. Meetings are also attended by the institute's director,
Geir Lundestad. Appointed director in 1990, Lundestad filled us in on some prize history.
What's the difference between being nominated and short-listed for the Peace
Prize? Anyone can be nominated, from President George Bush to Madonna, and this of-
ten causes a huge outcry, but there is a big difference between being nominated and be-
ing selected as the winner! We start from almost 200 candidates in February. The list is
cut down to 30, then five, and the rest of the time is spent focusing on the qualifications
of the candidates on the short list.
Is the committee ever criticised for being too secretive? The committee is trans-
parent, but it is true that the list of nominees is closed for 50 years and no minutes are
kept, though some of the members keep notes, which they have made public.
How has the nature of the prize changed while you've been director? The defini-
tion of peace has slowly broadened to include elements that reflect the changing world.
Human rights, for example, was initially a very controversial interpretation when it [the
prize] was given in 1960 to South African activist Albert Lutuli. The environment was ad-
ded as a road to peace in 2004 and there is always pressure to widen the definition fur-
ther.
Describe the ideal candidate? Many see the prize as a declaration of sainthood, but
winners are often just more or less ordinary people who have tried to do something useful
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