COMMENT The Norwegian Nobel committee has made odd decisions before. Awarding this year’s peace prize to Barack Obama, however, is not merely bizarre but bad: for Mr Obama, for the prize, and for the cause of peace itself.
The prize has been adrift for a while. Some recent laureates, such as Muhammad Yunus and Wangari Maathai, received it for work (microfinance and tree planting) that only overgenerous interpretation can relate to peacemaking. But even these far-fetched decisions referred to work actually done. This is the first time the prize is given for what remain, for now, mere aspirations.
