Checkpoint: Not-So-Noble Prize For Trump
The Nobel Prize
President Donald Trump has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Nominated by a member of Norway’s far-right, anti-immigration Progress Party, Christian Tybring-Gjedde, the nomination is based on Trump's role in the Abraham Accords between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Despite claiming “I am not a big Trump supporter”, this is the second time Tybring-Gjedde has nominated Trump for the prize, having nominated him in 2018 for his efforts to bring reconciliation between North and South Korea. A nomination, of course, is no guarantee of actually receiving the prize, especially since deserving the prize is not a requirement for nomination.
The Nobel Peace Prize (along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature) was first awarded in 1901, having been established by the will of Swedish industrialist and inventor, Alfred Nobel. According to some reports, Nobel included Peace as a prize category to ease his own guilt over the destruction wrought by his invention: Nitroglycerine, more commonly known as dynamite.
A wide variety of people and organizations have won the award in the last 119 years, from the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces (1988) and the European Union (2012), to Martin Luther King Jr. (1964), Nelson Mandela (1993) and Malala Yousafzai (2014). Each of these organizations and individuals made the world a better place through their efforts, often at great personal cost. However, the Peace Prize Laureate who bothers Trump and his supporters more than any other is the President’s predecessor, Barack Obama. In 2009, Obama was awarded the prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”.
Obama went on to carry out ten times more airstrikes on targets in the Middle East and Africa than George W. Bush, so some of the criticisms of his being awarded the Peace Prize are probably valid. Republican lawmakers and voters were never happy to see Obama receive such international praise, however, regardless of whether it was deserved or not. In 2020, those criticisms have started to ring hollow as those same Republicans flock to congratulate Trump on his nomination. The question that needs to be asked is: has Trump really made the world a more peaceful place?
The Abraham Accords would be impressive had the UAE or Bahrain actually been at war with Israel. Relations may not have been friendly, but they were already peaceful. Israel may have postponed their annexation of the West Bank to normalize relations with some of its neighbours, but on the ground a genocidal war is still being waged against Palestinians. Trump has not brought peace to those in the West Bank watching Israeli settlers steal their land, or those in the Gaza Strip living under an Israeli bombardment. If anything, Trump has aided and abetted Israel in carrying out its war crimes in Palestine.
Trump made the decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria, a move applauded by his supporters in the New Right. It was not a move for peace, however. For the Kurds of Rojava, the President’s decision means more war and fighting. Taking advantage of Trump’s decision, Turkey invaded the Kurdish strongholds of Northern Syria, leaving many Kurds fearful that a genocide was coming. Worse still, because Kurdish fighters were occupied fighting the Turkish invasion of their territory, many captured ISIS fighters being held by the Kurds were left practically unguarded. The move to abandon the Kurds could see the threat of ISIS remerge in the near future, bringing more bloodshed to the Middle East and beyond.
Obama may have been a fan of drone strikes, but in the first seven months of 2020, the Trump administration conducted more airstrikes in Somalia than were carried out during the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama combined. In that time, fifteen civilians were killed in those airstrikes but no witnesses were interviewed nor was any compensation paid. Under the current administration, 2018 and 2019 were the heaviest and deadliest years of U.S. bombing in Afghanistan since 2001. Trump is also suspected of playing a role in organizing an attempted coup in Venezuela earlier this year by a group of American mercenaries.
In his own country, Trump has turned America’s cities into warzones by setting federal agents on Black Lives Matter protesters. These agents are acting as a secret police force, prompting comparisons to the Gestapo of Nazi Germany. Unidentifiable, they snatch protesters off the streets into unmarked vans. They have attacked members of the press, even after those journalists have identified themselves. They are beating people to the ground, shooting them in the head with rubber bullets, ramming them with cars and using tear gas wantonly (tear gas is considered a chemical weapon and its use is banned in war). This is not a nation whose leader has inspired peace. This is a nation whose leader regularly incites violence.
In all likelihood, Trump will not win the Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee receives hundreds of nominations every year, the vast majority of whom have done a lot more to further the cause of peace in the world than the sitting American President. Despite the unquestioning adulation of his supporters, Trump simply does not deserve the prize simply because he has made the world a more violent and unstable place since his election. The only award he should be considered for is a Not-So-Noble Prize.