Nobel Peace Prize: World peace and theoretical approaches

Although the concept of peace has various meanings, it is basically divided into two types as negative and positive peace. Since negative peace is the absence of conflict, it is a much closer definition to the Realist understanding of peace. Positive peace, on the other hand, a social order where the disagreements are resolved peacefully between the units in the international order and there is no pressure at the international and national levels. This definition of peace has been adopted rather by Idealist and Liberal approaches. The Nobel Peace Prize may be accepted as one of the practical reflections of theoretical peace approaches in International Relations and as one of the most prestigious peace awards today. In the will of Alfred Nobel, it is suggested that the peace price be awarded to those who work toward strengthening the unity and solidarity between nations, reducing or eliminating national armies, promoting and organizing peace congresses. The Nobel Peace Prize, which has been followed within a certain process since 1901 and has had a wide range of candidates, was from time to time awarded to the parties of the internal conflict, sometimes to the leader who had initiated the war, or to a peace activist. As a result, the candidate selection and the winner determination processes, which are praised by some specialists and are criticized by some, have continued to exist today. In this thesis, the Nobel Peace Prize has been analysed in a rather broad sense. The thesis reviews the prize awarding process from both historical and theoretical perspectives, and it provides a multiple case-study research design. The thesis discusses whether certain peace prizes were awarded with an understanding of positive peace or negative peace as well as whether the theories of International Relations can explain the process of prize awarding. The thesis concludes that a liberal understanding of peace can better explain the Prize awarding process and that the actions and activities of some award winners conflicted with the will of Nobel and/or the principles of the Nobel Peace Prize.