On the Nobel Peace Prize’s troubling drift

When Alfred Bernhard Nobel composed his final will in Paris on 27 November 1895, he committed nearly his entire fortune to a bold and idealistic experiment. He directed that “all of my remaining realisable assets … constitute a fund, the interest on which is to be distributed annually as prizes to those who … during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.” While the awards for scientific excellence may appear straightforward — honouring inventions, discoveries, and breakthroughs in various branches of science — the Nobel Peace Prize has over the years become the most controversial. It attracts the sharpest criticism, with many questioning whether the credentials of its recipients truly align with what the man once described […]