
How to Win the Nobel Peace Prize
11/18/19 • 33 min
There are just five people in the world who decide each year who wins the Nobel Peace Prize -- and Asle Toje is one of them.
Asle Toje is a foreign policy scholar and author. As of last year, he is also the newest member of the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee.
In our conversation, we discuss how one wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Asle Toje discusses some of the behind-the-scenes work of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, including the kinds of considerations that he and the other jurors make when deciding who should win the Nobel Peace Prize. To the extent possible, this conversation brings you inside the room where every Nobel Peace Prize winner has been decided for most of the last 105 years.
We kick off with what with a discussion about the history of the Nobel Peace Prize and Alfred Nobel, before having an extended conversation about the process behind selecting the winner, certain controversies surrounding their decision over the years, and whether or not awarding the Nobel Peace Prize can influence broader political or policy outcomes in the service of peace.
This Global Dispatches Podcast episode is an incredibly unique opportunity to hear directly from a Nobel Peace Prize juror and I think you will love it. Asle Toje's newest book is called The Causes of Peace: What We Know Now
Support the show by becoming a premium subscriber
There are just five people in the world who decide each year who wins the Nobel Peace Prize -- and Asle Toje is one of them.
Asle Toje is a foreign policy scholar and author. As of last year, he is also the newest member of the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee.
In our conversation, we discuss how one wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Asle Toje discusses some of the behind-the-scenes work of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, including the kinds of considerations that he and the other jurors make when deciding who should win the Nobel Peace Prize. To the extent possible, this conversation brings you inside the room where every Nobel Peace Prize winner has been decided for most of the last 105 years.
We kick off with what with a discussion about the history of the Nobel Peace Prize and Alfred Nobel, before having an extended conversation about the process behind selecting the winner, certain controversies surrounding their decision over the years, and whether or not awarding the Nobel Peace Prize can influence broader political or policy outcomes in the service of peace.
This Global Dispatches Podcast episode is an incredibly unique opportunity to hear directly from a Nobel Peace Prize juror and I think you will love it. Asle Toje's newest book is called The Causes of Peace: What We Know Now
Support the show by becoming a premium subscriber
Previous Episode

Why The Gambia is Suing Myanmar for Genocide
The small west African country of the Gambia has lodged a suit at the International Court of Justice against Myanmar for committing a genocide against the Rohingya people.
The Rohingya are an ethnic and religious minority in Myanmar, who have long faced discrimination and persecution. But it was not until the summer and fall of 2017 that this persecution became a mass atrocity event, and arguably a genocide. Some 700,000 Rohingya fled violence in this time, and now more than a million live as refugees in neighboring Bangladesh.
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We kick off with a brief discussion of the International Court of Justice and how the judicial process at the ICJ works.
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A Brief History of Ukraine
The politics and recent history of Ukraine are suddenly quite central to the politics and history of the United States.
In this episode of the Global Dispatches podcast we examine what the US impeachment inquiry looks like from Ukraine. Veteran journalist Steven Erlanger, who is the chief diplomatic correspondent in Europe for the New York Times explains the recent history of Ukraine, including the 2004 Orange Revolution which brought Viktor Yushenko to power; and later, how Yushenko was replaced by a more pro-Russian president named Victor Yonukovich, who subsequently fled to Russia during what was known as the Euromaidan revolution in 2014.
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