Experts’ unanimous call on Donald Trump’s bid for Nobel Peace Prize
US President Donald Trump is one step closer to winning the Nobel Peace Prize, but the biggest question still hangs over his latest nomination.
Leaders
Don't miss out on the headlines from Leaders. Followed categories will be added to My News.
US President Donald Trump is one step closer to the Nobel Peace Prize, the award the 79-year-old has long appeared to covet more than anything else.
Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented the US President with a letter he sent to the prize committee nominating Trump for the award.
“He’s forging peace as we speak, in one country, in one region after the other,” Netanyahu said at a dinner with Trump at the White House.
He’s not the first and likely won’t be the last to nominate Trump for the award.
One of the world’s top honours, the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded annually by the Norwegian Nobel Committee to a recipient who has “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”.
Recipients include Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Malala Yousafzai, the humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders, and the World Food Programme.
US Presidents are able to win the award, and he would be the fifth after Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter, and Barack Obama.
Trump campaigned for office as a “peacemaker” who would use his negotiating skills to quickly end wars in Ukraine and Gaza, although both conflicts are still raging more than five months into his presidency.
There has also been a conflict between Israel and Iran that saw the US drop “bunker-busting” bombs on Iran as part of attacks on three nuclear sites.
However, he has been praised for his role in peace deals between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, India and Pakistan, and, in his first term, Serbia and Kosovo.
But with all that said, does he deserve the award?
Speaking to The Conversation, five experts from Australian universities all argue no.
Adjunct senior fellow, school of global, urban and social studies at RMIT University Emma Shortis argues, “Nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize is like entering a hyena in a dog show”.
“Trump has neither the interest nor the attention span required to build long term peace,” she said. “His administration is not willing to bear any of the costs or investments that come with genuine, lasting diplomacy. And he is not anti-war.
“There is no peace in Iran. Trump’s bombing of Iran simply exacerbates his decision in 2018 to end nuclear negotiations with Tehran. It pushes the world closer to, not further from, nuclear catastrophe.”
Research fellow in Middle East studies at Deakin University Ali Mamouri called Netanyahu’s nomination of Trump “a deep irony” considering the Israeli PM is facing war crimes charges from the International Criminal Court.
The arrest warrant was issued on November 21, 2024.
He further argues the Trump’s “silence in the face of a growing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza” and “unconditional support for Israel’s military campaigns across the region” are at odds with the stated mission of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Research Scholar in Middle East studies at Australian National University Ian Parmeter argued that Netanyahu’s nomination “was clearly aimed at flattering the president”.
He also took aim at the two biggest peace agreements the President has claimed so far.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that the ceasefire after a four-day conflict between India and Pakistan was achieved through talks between the militaries rather than US intervention.
“Talks for ceasing military action happened directly between India and Pakistan through existing military channels, and on the insistence of Pakistan,” Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said in a press statement at the time.
“Prime Minister Modi emphasised that India has not accepted mediation in the past and will never do.”
He also pointed to critics’ suggestions that Qatar had played a significant role in ending the war between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, even though the peace deal was signed in the White House.
Remember, Trump was also gifted a new $625m luxury plane from Qatar that will be converted into a new Air Force One.
Parmeter argues that for Trump to win the Nobel, he will have to “end the war (in Gaza) definitively and effect the release of all Israeli hostages”.
Associate professor of peace and conflict and co-director of the Initiative for Peacebuilding at The University of Melbourne Jasmine-Kim Westendorf claimed simply that Trump “is no peacemaker, he doesn’t deserve one”, which is a similar take of that of director of the Middle East Studies Forum (MESF) at Deakin University Shahram Akbarzadeh.
Trump has already been nominated by several Republican leaders as well as the government of Pakistan.
However, the latter nomination appeared to have sparked fury in Pakistan with the president of Pakistan’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party and former leader of the opposition, Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, calling for his nation to withdraw its nomination.
“Trump has supported the Israeli attacks on Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Iran. How can this be a sign of peace?” he said at the time.
“How can a man with the blood of Afghans and Palestinians on his hands claim to be a peacemaker?”
But for others, Trump is a shoo-in for the award.
USA Today’s Nicole Russell claimed Trump has done more than enough, arguing: “If stopping the worst state sponsor of terrorism from acquiring nuclear weapons and then ending a war in the Middle East isn’t worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize, then what is?”
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told CNN: “If we can get Iran to change their behaviour, then President Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize on steroids.”
According to Oddschecker, Trump has a 5/2 chance to win the Nobel Peace Prize; however, odds vary according to the betting agency.
He is behind only Yulia Navalnya, the widow of former Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is at 6/4 odds.
He has long been annoyed by Obama’s controversial Nobel Peace Prize win in 2009.
Obama himself said he was “surprised” by the win, considering he had only been the US President for eight months.
It’s been an issue stuck in Trump’s craw since.
“They gave Obama the Nobel prize,” Trump said to a campaign stop in 2024. “He didn’t even know why the hell he got it, right? He still doesn’t. He got elected and they announced he’s getting the Nobel prize. I got elected in a much bigger, better, crazier election, but they gave him the Nobel prize.”
Although Trump has previously been nominated for the award three times in 2018, 2020 and 2021, he has yet to win the award.
It’s a fact he is well aware of judging, by a post last Friday on Truth Social after he announced a peace deal between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.
“I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do,” Mr Trump wrote.
“I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for this, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for stopping the War between India and Pakistan, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for stopping the War between Serbia and Kosovo.
“No, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do, including Russia/Ukraine, and Israel/Iran, whatever those outcomes may be, but the people know, and that’s all that matters to me.”
With AFP
Originally published as Experts’ unanimous call on Donald Trump’s bid for Nobel Peace Prize
Albo eyes tourism in six-day China trip
Australia’s $9.2bn tourism links with China will be a dominant part during the PM’s trip to China, with pandas and a spot of football diplomacy on the agenda.
Ley reveals terrifying outback encounter
Sussan Ley has shared the terrifying moment she was forced to pull a rifle on a stranger while camping – and the Clint Eastwood line she used.