What you need to know about the Nobel Peace Prize: NPR

Anticipation is growing and bookmakers around the world are betting on who will win this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, with President Trump among the highest-profile – and most controversial – contenders.

On Friday, the Norwegian Nobel committee will announce the winner. The committee says the award is given to the person or organization that has done the most “for brotherhood among nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and dissemination of peace congresses.”

Trump has received numerous nominations and has never hidden his desire to win this prestigious honor. And, as the first phase of his peace plan for Gaza progresses, the focus is increasingly on the prospect of his victory.

Here’s what you need to know ahead of this year’s announcement.

How was the Peace Prize born?

In his 1895 will, Swedish inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel said his fortune should be divided into five parts to honor outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and to work in peace.

The first awards were made in 1901 and are now announced each October and awarded at a ceremony in December. In 1968, a new prize was established: the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences.

Thousands of people can choose to nominate an individual or organization as a candidate for the Peace Prize, even if you cannot nominate yourself. Those eligible to nominate a candidate include members of national governments, leaders of international peace organizations, university professors and past winners.

The recipients of four of the awards are chosen by a Swedish committee, while the recipient of the Peace Prize is chosen by a Norwegian committee consisting of five members appointed by the Norwegian parliament. The peace prize committee deliberates in secret for months before drawing up a shortlist and narrowing it down to choose the winner.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner receives a medal and approximately $1.17 million in prize money.

Who has won it in the past?

Some of the world’s most famous names have won in the past, including former South African presidents Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk in 1993 for peacefully ending apartheid and Martin Luther King Jr. in 1964 for his nonviolent fight for civil rights. Mother Theresa, the Dalai Lama and Malala Yousafzai are also all past winners.

The prize has also been awarded to little-known individuals or groups. Last year it was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese grassroots movement of survivors of the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The awarding of the prize also caused controversy. Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger received the award in 1973, alongside North Vietnam’s chief communist negotiator, Le Duc Tho, for concluding the Paris Peace Accords, which led to the United States’ exit from the Vietnam War. Tho declined the prize, but the decision to award Kissinger shocked many of his critics who viewed him as a warmonger.

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama in 2009, just months into his first term, was also controversial. Some criticized the decision, saying the president had not had time to prove himself. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed received the award for his efforts to achieve peace with neighboring Eritrea in 2019. He then waged a brutal war in Ethiopia’s northernmost region, Tigray.

Leaders from the Americas, including Costa Rica and Colombia, as well as human rights defenders from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine have also won the award.

Who is nominated this time?

This year, there are 338 candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize, including 244 individuals and 94 organizations.

At the center of intense speculation about this year’s prize is President Trump, who is currently engaged in negotiations to end the war in Gaza.

The Nobel Prize website does not list the nominees, although some of the nominators told media outlets who they had nominated. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have both confirmed they nominated Trump.

Trump has repeatedly said he deserves the award, saying he has already ended several wars this year, although fact-checkers dispute that claim because several conflicts he tried to end remain ongoing. Earlier this year, he told the White House: “They will never give me a Nobel Peace Prize. I deserve it, but they will never give it to me.”

Other names among possible winners this year include Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms, a network of volunteers helping civilians despite great risks amid the country’s civil war, and Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opponent Alexei Navalny.

In terms of the likelihood of a Trump victory, the Gaza ceasefire may come too late to change the outcome of this year’s award, and the committee is known for favoring sustained peace efforts over quick political victories.

However, as of Thursday morning, bookmakers’ odds place Trump and the Sudanese group as joint favorites, according to Oddschecker.