He promised that he would be remembered as a “peacemaker.” To legitimize this self-proclaimed title, Donald Trump wants at all costs to win the Nobel Peace Prize, this Friday, October 10 in Oslo, like one of his great democratic rivals, Barack Obama. The American president does not stop repeating his merit at the slightest opportunity and even judges that it would be an “insult” if he were not honored.
To aspire to win this Nobel Prize, the name of the 79-year-old Republican billionaire had to be submitted by a third person, whether it was a head of state, a parliamentarian, a minister, a university professor or a scientist. It’s done: his side’s representative Claudia Tenney named him last December for his role in the Abraham Accords, signed in 2020 between Israel and several Arab countries.
On the other hand, his registration by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or the Pakistani government will not allow him to win the Nobel this year. They occurred after the application submission deadline of January 31 and will therefore only be effective until 2026.
In form, the American president fills the picture, but the problem lies in substance.
Ceasefire instead of peace agreements
According to Alfred Nobel’s will written in 1901, the Nobel Peace Prize should be awarded to “the personality or community that has contributed most or best to the rapprochement of peoples, to the suppression or reduction of standing armies, to the gathering or propagation of progress for peace.”
To justify his merit against the 338 people and organizations competing this year, Donald Trump boasts of having put an end to seven conflicts “in seven months”, citing, among others, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Israel and Iran or even Egypt and Ethiopia.
The American president also insists on his attempts to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, so far without success, or even the conflict in Gaza. At this point, Donald Trump could have won a clear diplomatic victory, with Hamas expected to release the hostages next Monday as part of a peace deal whose implementation is on track but still uncertain.
“Progress has been made in certain situations, but these are not peace agreements. Peace is when there are situations of deep conflict resolution agreements,” Sébastien Roux, a sociologist specialized in Trumpism at the CNRS, explained to BFMTV in an interview organized before the announcement on Gaza.
“In the cases cited by Trump, at no time have the conditions for real peace been met. Trump, he says it himself, makes deals,” he adds.
For example, the billionaire vows to have brought peace between Israel and Iran by announcing a complete and total ceasefire between the two countries on June 24. A paradoxical statement to say the least, since the United States participated in the conflict by sending missiles to the Iranian nuclear facilities. But, above all, relations between the two enemy countries are far from peaceful.
On July 29, Israel threatened to attack Iran again if it resumed its nuclear program. And on August 18, Iran’s first vice president warned that a new war with Israel could break out at any moment.
Are there “clear examples of success”?
There are also these ceasefires that Donald Trump boasts about without his involvement being really substantiated. He has repeatedly assured that he negotiated a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, who clashed last May for four days over the Kashmir region, disputed for many years. However, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi denied any intervention by the US president in the discussions.
The same is true of Thailand and Cambodia, where violent clashes broke out in several places along their common border in July. The property tycoon said he asked leaders for a ceasefire, but it was Malaysia that primarily led the negotiations through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Although a truce was concluded in late July, no substantial agreement was reached and the two countries have since accused each other of ceasefire violations.
“The Nobel committee should evaluate whether there have been clear examples of success in this effort to restore peace,” the director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), Karim Haggag, told AFP.
“There is an enormous difference between stopping the fighting in the short term and resolving the root causes of the conflict,” says Theo Zenou, historian and researcher at the Henry Jackson Society, in statements to the Quebec magazine L’Actualité.
The Norwegian committee has already awarded Nobel Prizes in the past for a single action in favor of peace. Even for people who had fought wars before, like US President Theodore Roosevelt or former Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat. What gives Donald Trump hope? But since 2005, the criteria have become stricter, notes Franceinfo. The five members of the committee, appointed by the Norwegian Parliament, now prefer to honor a personality or community that has dedicated its life to promoting peace.
“The opposite of the ideals that the Nobel Prize represents”
Donald Trump’s divisive personality and the policies he pursues on American soil may fail him. “It is, in many ways, the opposite of the ideals that the Nobel Prize represents,” considers Øivind Stenersen, a historian specialized in the subject, interviewed by AFP.
“The Nobel Peace Prize is the defense of multilateral cooperation, for example through the UN. (…) However, Trump represents a break with this principle because he follows his own path, unilaterally,” he adds.
In August, three Nobel historians identified multiple reasons for not awarding the prize to the American president. Intermingled, they cited his admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who started the war in Ukraine, his support for Israel in what more and more experts describe as “genocide” in Gaza and, more broadly, his break with the Nobel ideals in terms of international cooperation, disarmament, democracy and the defense of human rights.
Not to mention his denial of global climate change or his budget cuts in health and research. Policies that should also fuel debates when other prizes are awarded.”
There is also the reality of the events on American soil. Trump is waging a cruel war on immigrants. It carries out particularly strong discriminatory actions against people of color, against transgender people, against sexual minorities, against women,” lists Trumpism specialist Sébastien Roux.
In the face of media noise, the committee reaffirms its independence
By asking too much for this price, Donald Trump could also put obstacles in his way. “The committee will not want to be seen as bowing to political pressure,” Nina Græger, director of the Oslo Peace Research Institute, told L’Actualité magazine. In mid-September, the Norwegian committee insisted on asserting its freedom of decision and independence.
“We can see that there is a lot of media attention around certain candidates. But this does not influence the ongoing discussions in the committee,” the secretary of the Nobel committee, Kristian Berg Harpviken, responded to AFP.
“We are doing everything possible to organize the process and the meetings so that we are not unduly influenced by any campaign,” he added. “In history there are few people who guided their careers with the goal of winning a Nobel Peace Prize and ended up getting it.”
Source: BFM TV
