Norwegian Nobel Committee Secretary Kristian Berg Harpviken, who carried out the file preparations for the five-member committee, stated in his statement before the decision that they were closely monitoring the fractures in the international order.
Stating that the world is going through serious turmoil, Harpviken said, "We know what we left behind, but we cannot predict how much of it will survive and in what form, and what will emerge in the future. Some trends we see in the international arena threaten the values that the Nobel Peace Prize has defended throughout its history."
Harpviken noted that the committee adhered to the principles of "promoting fraternity among nations, reducing or abolishing standing armies, and organizing peace congresses" in Alfred Nobel's will dated 1895, and that it prioritized new institutions and initiatives that would strengthen international cooperation during the transition period.
The award choice came at a time when increasing polarization in international diplomacy and allegations of pressure from the US administration were on the agenda.
Experts reminded that Venezuelan Maria Corina Machado, who won the award the previous year, gave her gold medal to US President Donald Trump and Trump's open lobbying activities to receive the award put serious pressure on the committee.
Speaking to Reuters, Oslo Peace Research Institute (PRIO) Deputy Director Haakon Gjerloew stated that the committee evaluated names that could resist the pressures that Trump may create during the decision phase.
Gjerloew stated that Trump, who is waging a war with Iran, had a slim chance of receiving the award even though he was nominated by the leaders of Cambodia, Israel and Pakistan.
Nobel Peace Prize-winning Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, on the other hand, welcomed Trump's attempts to put pressure on the committee with horror and said, "Tyrants cannot rule the world. There are rules that determine our lives, and power does not make right."
Nobel historian Oeivind Stenersen also pointed out that the committee has the responsibility to defend liberal democracy, human rights and international law in the current global crisis conditions.
Stenersen stated that in addition to the ICC and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which are under the threat of sanctions from Washington, actors such as Pope Leo and UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese, who took a stance against the war, were also strongly discussed in the candidate pool.
The history of the Nobel Peace Prize has witnessed decisions that are remembered with both historical consensus and harsh criticism. Martin Luther King, the leader of the civil rights struggle in the USA, was recorded as the youngest person to receive this award in 1964, at the age of 35; The title was later passed to Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai, who received the award in 2014 at the age of 17.
During the process of ending the apartheid regime in South Africa, the 1993 award was given jointly to Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk, the last white leader of the period.
Geir Lundestad, the former secretary of the committee, announced that the award was shared in order to encourage the transition process, as well as those who argued that Mandela should receive it alone.
On the other hand, the award given to Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho for the Vietnam peace talks in 1973 was one of the most controversial decisions in the history of the institution.
While Le Duc Tho rejected the award on the grounds that peace had not yet been achieved, two members of the committee resigned, and Kissinger did not attend the ceremony and later tried to return the medal.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who was awarded in 1991 for her fight against the military dictatorship in Myanmar, received heavy criticism years later for remaining silent about the Myanmar army's massacres of Rohingya Muslims in 2017, which amounted to genocide.
Mahatma Gandhi, the symbol of non-violent resistance, was never awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, although he was on the candidate list five times and was on the agenda for receiving the award in 1948, when he was assassinated.
In his memoirs, Lundestad described Gandhi's unrewarding as the biggest shortcoming in the committee's history.
