Page 48 - ACTL_Sum23

American diplomat and political scientist who was award- ed the prize in 1950 for his efforts to negotiate peace be- tween Israel and the Arab States as acting UN mediator in Palestine. The more recent recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize for their work to negotiate peace between Israel and Palestine were Shimon Peres, Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin in 1994. The 1994 prize was so controversial that two mem- bers of the Peace Prize Committee actually left the com- mittee. I think the prize illustrates that even the hardest enemies acknowledge that at some point atrocities and conflict must come to an end. They come to an end when people start to talk together and often change their origi- nal position. In many cases, an arguably “early” timed prize amplifies a movement or idea from what may have been a mur- mur to a deafening drumbeat. Lech Wałęsa, co-found- er and leader of the anti-authoritarian Solidarność – or Solidarity – trade union, was awarded the prize in 1983. But the election – and Solidarity’s victory – that marked thefallofcommunisminPolanddidnotoccuruntil1989. Lech Wałęsa has told me that for the Solidarity movement, the peace prize came just in time: “\[Our morale was so low\], and the peace prize liberated Poland . . . brought down the wall, and brought down communism a few years later.” Similarly, President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia said that while he lost the peace accord that was up for vote in Colombia after fifty years of civil war, he was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2016, and the award served as a catalyst for peace. The prospect of peace seems now to be hopeful in Colombia. This is the ambition of the prize, to support the peace process when that support is most needed. ThewonderfulMalalaYousafzaiwasonlyseventeenyearsold when she received the prize. Malala wrote a diary under a penname about life under Taliban rule in northwest Pakistan. After gaining national notoriety for her advocacy for girls’ rights to education, she miraculously survived an assassina- tion attempt in which a Taliban gunman boarded her school bus and opened fire, shooting her in the head. The episode brought her international fame, and she has continued her advocacy. In her speech she said, one child, one pen, one book can illustrate the importance of education and change the entire world. Barack Obama. Many people ask me, what about Barack Obama, who had been President for less than eight months when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009? One must not for- get that when he became president, he immediately began talks regarding nuclear disarmament. 47 JOURNAL Martin Luther King, who is now an international icon and human rights defender, received the prize in 1964. Had his life not been taken from him prematurely, the prize likely would have been characterized as “early” in Dr. King’s career. At the time, he was the youngest per- son to be awarded the prize. But regardless of the tim- ing of the prize for Dr. King the individual, the award to one of its leaders lifted the entire civil rights movement.