Just five years after President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace prize (to much global amazement), Norwegian politicians have nominated none other than Edward Snowden for this year's award for contributing to transparency and global stability by exposing a U.S. surveillance program. As Reuters reports [7], Snowden’s "actions have in effect led to the reintroduction of trust and transparency as a leading principle in global security policies."
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Via Reuters, [7]
“The public debate and changes in policy that have followed in the wake of Snowden’s whistleblowing have contributed to a more stable and peaceful world order,” Norwegian parliamentarians Snorre Valen and Baard Vegar Solhjell said in the nomination letter obtained by Bloomberg.
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“There’s no doubt that the actions of Edward Snowden may have damaged the security interests of several nations in the short term,” said Valen and Solhjell, who was environment minister in the former Labor-led government. Snowden’s “actions have in effect led to the reintroduction of trust and transparency as a leading principle in global security policies.”
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Valen and Solhjell, who represent the Socialist Left Party in the Norwegian parliament, also said that they “don’t necessarily condone or support all of his disclosures.”
The Nobel Committee accepts nominations from members of national assemblies, governments, international courts, professors and previous laureates. It received a record 259 nominations for last year’s prize. While the nominees are kept secret for 50 years, names are sometimes disclosed by the nominators. The prize winner will be announced in October.
Is this the Nobel's last best effort to regain some credibility?