Assignment

Introduction & Thesis
On October 12, 2001, it was announced that the United Nations and its Secretary-General were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which administers the prize for its Swedish parent organization. This year marks the centennial anniversary of the prize and the first for the United Nations, as such. For this reason, it is worth critically examining this event and determining what it says about the United Nations. The following summary will explore whether or not the United Nations deserves such an award. It will analyze the achievements of the United Nations in light of the criteria Mr. Alfred Nobel set forth in his will.

The UN � The Prize
In its October 12th press release, the Nobel Committee sketches out its rationalization for awarding the prize to the UN, the release states,

�The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2001� to the United Nations (U.N.) and to its Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world.�

The release goes on to read,

�The U.N. has in its history achieved many successes, and suffered many setbacks. Through this first Peace Prize to the U.N. as such, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes in its centenary year to proclaim that the only negotiable route to global peace and cooperation goes by way of the United Nations.�

The United Nations is no stranger to failure. It has been blamed for inaction during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that resulted in the massacre of 800,000 people, and for its inability to immediately suppress the Bosnian and Kosovar crises in the Balkans.

The UN is also no stranger to mixed accomplishments. While it successfully intervened to bring about the independence of East Timor, it was unable to stop the fighting that resulted until Australia sent troops to impose a ceasefire. Why, then, would the Committee award the prize to an organization that has clearly suffered from an inability to fulfill its mission?

It is interesting to note that the decision to award the prize to the UN was actually made in late September, just days after the September 11th attacks against the United States, and comes in the midst of talk and expectations for the United Nations to take a leading role in the servicing of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons in the Middle East, and the creation of a new, broad-based and representative government for Afghanistan.

This is not to say that the United Nations was awarded the prize solely in response to the present dilemma. As of September 15, 2001, the United Nations was operating fifteen (15) separate peacekeeping operations around the world, in addition to hundreds of programs which seek to alleviate human suffering as a means to promote economic and social development, a requisite for true peace and security. Through the leadership of its Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, the organization is successfully evaluating its strengths and weaknesses through in-depth looks at its practices and through the commissioning of panels intent on creating �preventive initiatives to succeed in reducing tension and averting conflict� (e.g. the Brahimi report and the S.G.�s plan for UN reform).