According to Dovilė Jakniūnaitė, professor of the Department of International Relations at the Institute of International Relations and Political Sciences of Vilnius University (VU), although this recognition is important symbolically, it would be naive to expect changes in political practice.
in 1956 the organization was founded by ordinary Japanese people who survived the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear attacks. By sharing their personal stories and organizing educational campaigns, these historical witnesses have warned of the dangers of nuclear weapons and contributed to the global opposition to them.
“This confederation of organizations was created amid the tensions of the Cold War as a local institution with international ambitions. The main purpose of hibakusha was to preserve the historical memory of the disaster and reparations. Their effort to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of the use of nuclear weapons contributed to the non-use of nuclear weapons becoming an international norm,” comments Prof. D. Jakniūnaitė.
According to her, the Japanese survivors of the atomic explosions had to fight hard so that their experience and pain would be recognized and not forgotten and ignored in their home country. The Nobel Peace Prize is a symbolic recognition of these years of efforts and idealistic work. However, one should not expect this to become a real political practice.
“The Nobel Committee is drawing attention to the nuclear threat for the second time in a decade. in 2017 the laureate has already become the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). It’s a pretty straight-forward message of concern about states politically manipulating nuclear power. Among them is Russia, which has the largest number of nuclear weapons in the world and is wasting its time on threats,” the professor believes.
The interviewer claims that this award has another historical reference. It is a reminder that the first nation to produce and the only nation to use a nuclear weapon was the United States.
“The world order is no longer what it was at the beginning of the last decade of the last century. Liberal democracies are finding it increasingly difficult to convince other players to comply with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Among the many challenges associated with international security, I would single out global division, increasing polarization between NPT member states, arms proliferation efforts by states such as Iran or North Korea, etc., says Prof. D. Jakniūnaitė.
According to her, the challenges arise from the basic desire to oppose the existing world order and the perception of the decline of US power. In this geopolitical context, the most important task is to prevent states hostile to the current order from gaining more capabilities.
“When it comes to the world, tensions may not be decreasing, but they are becoming more intense, and the probability that conflicts will expand to include larger regions is increasing. Especially in the Middle East. At the moment, there is no single strong leader of an organization or state – no one is playing the role that the United States previously played in controlling global tensions a little,” explains the international relations expert.
The Norwegian Nobel Institute registered 286 candidates for the peace prize this year: 197 individuals and 89 organizations. Nominations may be made by former laureates, committee members, heads of state, members of parliaments, and professors of political science, history, and international law.
Even before the prize was announced, some experts questioned whether it should be awarded at all this year, given the complex situation in the world, which is currently undergoing more than 50 armed conflicts and the number of casualties has increased dramatically over the past two decades. However, not awarding the prize would be considered a failure of the committee, so it was awarded.
Last year, the award went to imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran.
Laureates are awarded on December 10. – Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel, whose initiative in 1895 these bonuses were established on the date of death. The ceremony takes place in the capitals of Sweden and Norway.
This year, the size of the Nobel Prize is 11 million. Swedish kroner (approximately EUR 0.972 million).
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