I love the Nobel Peace Prize circus although I get the impression I'm increasingly alone in this amongst critical scholars so let me make a pitch for it.

It's not just a prize to make people feel good, the point is to force the attention the world to pay attention to an issue. https://twitter.com/M__Verbruggen/status/1313060360367333377

There are 2 types of prizes: The recognition & the encouragement prize. Recognition is for people who have thought long & accomplished much. Encouragement is for people who have worked hard on something but it's not achieved yet.

The prize gives a ton of attention/prestige/money to pro-peace initiatives that would have otherwise remained unknown, especially to issues in the Global South that the West is often ignorant about.

The goal of giving the prize to ICAN was to put pressure on states to make progress on nuclear disarmament. The point of giving the prize to Liu Xiaobo was to pressure China.

And sometimes they mess up, badly, like with Obama, and much worse, Kissinger/Le Duc Tho. But I don't think that invalidates the prize as a whole.

And yeah it's a glamorous ceremony, but why does that matter? Doesn't the work of peace deserve a little glamour too? Not a problem for the science prizes either is it? And the Oslo city hall can't help it being so beautiful.

PS:

- Tons of different institutes can nominate
- Deadline for nomination is 31 Jan
- They decide on the winner in September

So nomination is meaningless & anyone who suddenly became important between Feb-Oct will not win.