When a Nobel Peace Prize winner wages war, who loses?
| Johannesburg
When Mulugeta Gebregziabher heard in October 2019 that the Nobel Peace Prize had been awarded to Abiy Ahmed, the new reformist prime minister of Ethiopia, his reaction was immediate dread.
鈥淚 thought, this is going to give this guy the legitimacy internationally to do whatever he wants,鈥� says the Ethiopian professor of biostatistics, who now lives in the United States.
For Yonatan Fessha, an Ethiopian legal scholar at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, the choice betrayed a startling lack of research.
Why We Wrote This
What does a Nobel Peace Prize really represent 鈥� and how do you define 鈥減eace鈥� in the first place? Those questions have an especially sharp edge amid the war in Tigray, just two years after Abiy Ahmed鈥檚 win.
鈥淪omeone closely familiar with the political dynamics of that region wouldn鈥檛 have given this award to Abiy,鈥� he remembers thinking.
Nearly two years later, the chorus condemning the decision to give Mr. Abiy the award has swollen. Since November 2020, the prime minister 鈥� hailed by the Nobel Prize committee for giving Ethiopians 鈥渉ope for a better life and a brighter future鈥� 鈥� has been waging war on听one of his own provinces, Tigray. There have been multiple documented massacres of civilians and the region is experiencing widespread starvation, much of it as a result of . Earlier this month, Mr. Abiy鈥檚 party was declared the winner of an election boycotted by two major opposition parties, and in which about a fifth of the country鈥檚 regions , poising him for a second five-year term.
The war and disputed election have resurfaced long-standing conversations about the decision to give Mr. Abiy the world鈥檚 most prestigious prize for peacemaking. And more generally, they have again raised questions that have long haunted the Nobel. How do you define peacemaking? Who deserves a prize for it? And what happens when the award is given to someone who goes on to wage war?
Nobel鈥檚 vision
鈥淎ny Nobel Peace Prize given to an individual bestows on that individual a very high legitimacy in the world 鈥� it鈥檚 one of the most prestigious prizes a person can win,鈥� says Kjetil Tronvoll, a peace and conflict researcher at Bj酶rknes University College听in Norway, who studies Ethiopia.
Yet the criteria for winning one are remarkably fuzzy, says Fredrik Heffermehl, a Norwegian peace activist and the author of 鈥淔ame or Shame? Norway and the Nobel Peace Prize.鈥� Sometimes it goes to political leaders brokering an end to conflict and oppression at home: like Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk, for ending apartheid and ushering in democracy in South Africa; or to Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, and Yitzhak Rabin, for 鈥渢heir efforts to create peace in the Middle East.鈥� Other times, it鈥檚 given to humanitarians like Agnes Bojaxhiu, better known as Mother Teresa, a Roman Catholic nun who ministered to poor and dying people in Kolkata, India; or to activists like Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani advocate for women鈥檚 education.
But Alfred Nobel, a Swedish inventor best known for creating dynamite, actually had a very clear vision of what he wanted his peace prize to reward, Mr. Heffermehl says. And it was neither local peace accords nor human rights activism.
In his will, Mr. Nobel wrote that the prize should go each year 鈥渢o 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.鈥澨�
鈥淚t is not a do-good prize,鈥� Mr. Heffermehl says. 鈥淚t is not a prize for international friendship and understanding. It is specifically a prize for avoiding future wars through听global听cooperation and disarmament.鈥�
Even those criteria, however, can be far from clear-cut.
鈥淭here鈥檚 an inherent problem in the idea of giving a peace prize for starters because the bar is so high for successfully negotiating, agreeing to, and implementing peace,鈥� says Leslie Vinjamuri, an expert on human rights and U.S. foreign relations at Chatham House in London. 鈥淔requently in the toughest conflicts we see setbacks, returns to violence, returns to instability before you finally settle on stability. 鈥� We have to recognize that complex reality that peace is dynamic.鈥�
Despite Mr. Nobel鈥檚 will, the committee has long interpreted its mandate more broadly, as a prize for people reducing violence in the world. Still, many critics say it has tarnished the prize鈥檚 name by awarding it to people who were already embroiled in war, or would go on to be. In 1973, for instance, the prize went in part to U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger for his efforts to bring peace to Vietnam 鈥� even as a bombing campaign Mr. Kissinger had orchestrated was still ongoing in Cambodia. (Mr. Kissinger鈥檚 selection was so controversial at the time that his co-awardee, North Vietnamese leader Le Duc Tho, refused the prize, and two members of the Nobel committee resigned in protest.)
The 2009 prize was awarded to U.S. President Barack Obama, then commander in chief of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And in 2019, just a month after Mr. Abiy won the prize, Myanmar鈥檚 heralded opposition leader and 1991 peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi stood before the International Court of Justice in The Hague to argue that the slaughter of was not a genocide, but a military action against terrorists and insurgents.
Prize as encouragement
As Mr. Obama , 鈥淭hroughout history, the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it鈥檚 also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes.鈥�
In Ethiopia, according to the Nobel committee, that 鈥渟et of causes鈥� included peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea and democratic reforms for Ethiopians, who had lived the previous three decades under an authoritarian one-party regime.
Mr. Abiy became head of that regime, but from the moment he took office, in April 2018, he set about loosening his government鈥檚 grip on its people, releasing thousands of political prisoners, negotiating a peace agreement with neighboring Eritrea, and welcoming back high-profile opposition political leaders from exile.
But even in the earliest days, observers say, there were signs that his reforms were not as positive for the country as they seemed 鈥� particularly when it came to reorganizing Ethiopian politics.
For nearly three decades, since the end of a brutal civil war, the country had been ruled by the Ethiopian People鈥檚 Revolutionary Democratic Front, a coalition of ethnically based political parties dominated by the Tigray People鈥檚 Liberation Front. After Mr. Abiy鈥檚 ascension, many Tigrayan leaders were sidelined, and the TPLF accused the government of unfairly targeting its leaders in corruption purges and leadership changes. When Mr. Abiy announced in late 2019 that he was forming a new party, the Prosperity Party, to succeed the EPRDF, the TPLF refused to join.
鈥淭he Nobel Prize emboldened Abiy to reform the internal political structure, which was the single most significant trigger for the war today,鈥� Dr. Tronvoll says. 鈥淗igh-level party insiders have told me that in those negotiations he used the prize to basically say, 鈥業 have an international mandate to rule as I see fit.鈥欌��
Dr. Tronvoll recalls asking foreign diplomats why they did not comment as domestic reform started to backslide. He says he was told that Mr. Abiy was 鈥渦ntouchable.鈥� That reluctance to criticize Ethiopia, he adds, endured well after the fighting began in Tigray.
Even as it gave Mr. Abiy the prize in 2019, the Nobel committee appeared to acknowledge doubts about his award.
鈥淣o doubt some people will think this year鈥檚 prize is being awarded too early,鈥� the group wrote in announcing his win. 鈥淭he Norwegian Nobel Committee believes it is now that Abiy Ahmed鈥檚 efforts deserve recognition and need encouragement.鈥�
Ultimately, it鈥檚 five individuals wrestling with 鈥渁 really complex calculation that they clearly struggle with and reassess time and time again,鈥� Dr. Vinjamuri says: when to award a peacemaking prize you can鈥檛 take back. 鈥淏ut I like that the prize is usually pretty bold,鈥� she adds. 鈥淚t鈥檚 sort of trying to be part of something, rather than just being purely a seal of approval for past deeds done.鈥�
For Mr. Abiy, the peace prize may in the end be both a blessing and a curse. It 鈥渨as an asset at the beginning; it won him many friends,鈥� says Mr. Fessha. But in November 2020, after the Tigrayan government held local elections in defiance of a national postponement due to the coronavirus pandemic, fighting broke out, and quickly escalated. Since then, thousands (tens of thousands, ) have died, and more than 1 million people have fled their homes.
鈥淣ow he has become the Nobel Peace Prize winner who refuses to give peace a chance,鈥� Mr. Fessha says. 鈥淎nd that label could be a liability.鈥�
