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Establishment Bias of the Nobel Peace Prize 2016
In crushing armed rebellions, when the situation reaches a point where the state cannot crush the movement and the movement also cannot overthrow the state, an objective situation arises for a possible peace deal. At such moments, if there is enlightened leadership on both sides, the military stalemate can provide the opportunity to seize the moment for a peace deal. The credit for seizing the opportune moment in Colombia to reach the peace accord belongs both to Juan Manuel Santos and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia leader Timochenko. This is where the Nobel Peace Prize needed to go further than merely awarding it to Santos.
There is an admirable innovativeness in the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize. It has been awarded not for having success in achieving peace, but for an effort to achieve peace. It is an award, therefore, not for an outcome, but for a process. Juan Manuel Santos, the President of Colombia, the recipient of this prize, defied not only his country’s past political practice of trying to militarily liquidate the Marxist guerrilla force, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), but also his own political past of military confrontation with the guerrilla force.
Commitment to Peace
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