A former member of the Norwegian Nobel Institute expressed his uneasiness last Wednesday about this year’s winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Timothy Sisk, associate professor in the Graduate School of International Studies, spoke during events marking the International Conflict Resolution Day.
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize was equally shared by former Vice President Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “for their efforts to raise awareness and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change,” said the Nobel Committee in awarding the prize.
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of several awards Gore has won this past year.
He also won an Academy Award and Emmy for his recent documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth.
Sisk discussed his unease about this year’s Peace Prize winners. He pointed out that the prize goes to an individual or an organization that has contributed the greatest benefit to mankind in the past year with regards to peace.
He then went on to discuss a question that he says he often wonders about, “But what exactly is peace?” he asked the audience.
Sisk said he hopes that when a new Nobel committee is formed in 2008, the members will “get more edgy” with whom they chose as the winner. The five members who make up prize committee are elected every six years when members can either be re-elected or replaced with new members.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee states on its Web site that global warming may increase the danger of violent conflicts and wars within and between states.
Sisk disagreed, saying that he is not aware of enough evidence that proves climate change can cause violent conflicts.
When comparing global warming to other violent conflicts occurring in the world today, “Could the prize have been awarded to a more deserving person or group?” Sisk asked.
International Conflict Resolution Day falls on the third Thursday in October. Students enrolled in conflict resolution courses set up a stand and sold T-shirts that said, “love/hate”. Students could purchase a T-shirt for $5 or bring their own shirt to have decorated by the volunteers.
Last year, DU hosted Peace Jam, the largest gathering of Nobel Peace Prize laureates ever to occur outside of Norway.
Prince Cedza Dlamini, the grandson of South Africa’s former president Nelson Mandela, spoke on Thursday on the Auraria campus in Denver at the Conflict Resolution Day celebration there.
Mila Pilz, a graduate student in the conflict resolution program, said she hopes that the annual event would help to, “broaden the dialogue about peace and alternative methods to resolve conflict.”
