Unni Turrettini - Betraying the Nobel: Secrets, Corruption, and the Worlds Most Prestigious Prize

BETRAYING THE NOBEL

Pegasus Books, Ltd.

148 W. 37th Street, 13th Floor

New York, NY 10018

Copyright 2020 by Unni Turrettini

Foreword 2020 by Michael Nobel

First Pegasus Books edition November 2020

Interior design by Maria Torres

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review in a newspaper, magazine, or electronic publication; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN: 978-1-64313-564-9

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-64313-565-6

Distributed by Simon & Schuster

www.pegasusbooks.com

FOR AXEL AND ELLA

May your generation grow up to become the leaders our world needs.

FOREWORD BY PROFESSOR MICHAEL NOBEL, P H D

AS VICE CHAIRMAN and chairman for fifteen years of the Nobel Family Society and thus, in that position, the informal representative of the family, I had frequent and friendly relations with the former Executor Director of the Nobel Foundation, Michael Sohlman. We both shared the worldwide interest in the Nobel Prizes, of which the Nobel Peace Prize is the best-known and is recognized internationally by the general population as the one the world refers to when they attempt to define what the Nobel Prizes are.

In reality, there were five prizes described in Alfred Nobels will: peace, medicine, physics, chemistry, and literature. The prizes are commonly regarded around the world as the highest accolade which can be bestowed upon an individual, whether he or she is a scientist, writer, or peace activist.

Among those, the award for peace is often identified as THE NOBEL. It is by far the best-known prize internationally but is also the most controversial. The science prizesphysics and chemistryas well as the so-called Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, which is the Swedish Central Banks award in Economic Sciences to the Memory of Alfred Nobel that was created in 1968 and thus cannot be considered a true Nobel Prize, are chosen by the Swedish Academy of Science, while the medicine award is decided upon by another Nobel committee in cooperation with the Nobel Assembly, whose members are professors at the Karolinska Institute, a Swedish medical university.

The subjects and discoveries in these fields are usually beyond the understanding or knowledge of the general public so the choices generally do not cause any controversy, except maybe among colleagues of those who are fortunate to receive these awards. But the Norwegian Nobel committee has often selected candidates for the Peace Prize who were well known to the general public and mass media and therefore liable to invite critical comments and reactions.

The Norwegian Nobel committee has also expanded the concept of peace to include categories, which to the critical observer, have little or nothing to do with the original conditions of Alfred Nobels will and intentions, and they also apear to have done very sketchy investigations into the qualifications of some of the selected candidates.

Betraying the Nobel points out and describes in detail such fallacies in past selections, showing that the choices often appear based upon political and national considerations of Norway since all committee members (except one, recently appointed) continue to be selected among former representatives of the main political parties in Norway.

Prize laureates in the past such as Henry Kissinger, Yasser Arafat, Rigoberta Mench, and Kim Dae-jung have evoked strong negative comments and criticisms. Also, the selection of more recent laureates such as Barack Obama, Al Gore, Malala Yousafzai, Liu Xiaobo, and Wangari Maathai have caused strong negative reactions from a wide range of critics around the world.

These processes are well described in Turrettinis book. The committees expanded peace concept, involving as it does environmental challenges, human rights activities and measures, as well as the laws for the protection of minorities and sexes, is a far cry from the conditions of Alfred Nobels testament. In it he stated that the award should go to the person who shall have 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. He did not mention human rights or global warming and, in many peoples opinion, the committee in this way has abandoned the true reasons for what Alfred Nobel intended to accomplish by his last will.

Betraying the Nobel performs a useful task through its description of the peculiar manner in which these choices were made, and the sometimes hazardous process or personal interests that led up to an unjustified selection of candidates. Some people, notably the Norwegian lawyer Fredrik Heffermehl, regard this as an abandonment of the conditions established by Alfred Nobel in his will specifically regarding the conditions of the prize. The underlying reasons for these reactions are clearly presented and well explained.

The book follows up with a chapter on Nobel Peace Prize laureates who, later in their careers and lives, appear to no longer embrace the attitudes and values for which they worked and won the Peace Prize as a resultmost notably Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar.

Betraying the Nobel ends with a description of candidates such as Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalinwhose nominations have been claimed to have been made in jestas well as recommendations of what needs to be done in order for the Nobel Peace Prize to continue to be regarded as the foremost of its kind.

Betraying the Nobel constitutes a much-needed report on the background and past history of some of the Nobel Peace Prize laureates who, for a number of reasons, appear to be unqualified and the sometimes badly or insufficiently researched decisions leading up to their selection. In summary, this is an excellent book of reference for the critically minded individual.

INTRODUCTION PRIZE AND PARADOX

NO OTHER PRIZE holds more prestige than the Nobel. An aura of admiration surrounds it. As 1984 winner Desmond Tutu put it, No sooner I had got the Nobel Peace Prize than I became an instant oracle. Virtually everything I had said before was now received with something like awe. No other award is followed by just about every country in the world and commented on by just about every newspaper and television network.

However, the Nobel Peace Prize as we know it is corrupt at its core.

The prize, former secretary and director of the Nobel Institute, Geir Lundestad, said to the Norwegian state television station NRK in 2014, has not become renowned because the committee rewards the Red Cross and Nelson Mandela, but rather because of its controversial choices.

Controversial choices are fine as long as the committee, as executors of Alfred Nobels last will, sticks to his instructions. Nobel wanted the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee to select peace champions to act as role models for the rest of us. Naming someone a peace champion, then, is a risky business. First, the committees choice may not be everyones cup of tea or have the most convenient political leanings. Second, the committee cannot predict how a Nobel laureate will behave in the aftermath of the prize. What if the winner doesnt turn out to be the beacon of hope and inspiration the committee had hoped for? Thus, the committee must show courage and conviction in their choices, because history will reflect back to themand their choicesmaking it all the more vital that the committee research their candidates properly.