http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/3740

Presents brief biographical portraits of the 106 recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize during its 100-year history.

In this groundbreaking and controversial critique of the selections of Nobel Peace Prize winners, an eminent Norwegian lawyer and peace activist calls for its return to legal and moral compliance with the will of Alfred Nobel who wished to support disarmament to prevent war. The Nobel Peace Prize is the world's most coveted award, galvanizing the world's attention for 110 years. In recent decades, it has also become the world's most reviled award, as heads of militarized states and out-and-out warmongers and terrorists have been showered with peace prizes. Delving into previously unpublished primary sources, Fredrik Heffermehl reveals the history of the inner workings of the Norwegian Nobel Committee as it has come under increasing political, geopolitical, and commercial pressures to make inappropriate awards. As a Norwegian lawyer, Heffermehl makes the case that the Norwegian politicians entrusted with the Nobel peace awards have brushed aside the legal requirements in Scandinavian estate law using the prize to promote their own political and personal interests instead of the peace ideas Alfred Nobel had in mind. Evaluating each of the 119 Nobel Peace Prizes awarded between 1901 and 2009, the author tracks the ever-widening divergence of the committee's selections from Nobel's intentions and concludes that all but one of the last ten prizes are illegitimate under the law.

This text offers a critique of Barack Obama's presidency and a powerful case that progressives should not give up on Obama. Obama has been a bitter disappointment in many ways, Dorrien contends, yet he also has historic achievements to his credit that are too often discounted.

The election of Barack Obama to the presidency in 2008 was hailed by many as a historic event and by some as the end of the Reagan era in American politics. But conservatives have condemned Obama from the beginning of his presidency, and many progressives charge that Obama has betrayed the causes that he espoused in 2008. This book offers a brilliant critique of Obama's presidency and a powerful case that progressives should not give up on Obama. Gary Dorrien, described by Princeton philosopher Cornel West as "the preeminent social ethicist in North America today," argues that Obama is a figure of "protean irony and complexity." Obama has been a bitter disappointment in many ways, Dorrien contends, yet Obama also has historic achievements to his credit that are too often discounted. Dorrien emphasizes the importance of Obama's story to his career and devotes chapters to the economic crisis, the health care reform debate, war and foreign policy, banking regulation and the federal budget, and the case for a progressive politics of the common good. Ultimately, Dorrien says, the Obama question is whether or not Obama's presidency will mark the end of the Reagan era--when giant corporations and the wealthy got whatever they wanted, military budgets soared, and American politics was ruled by the fantasy of tax cuts paying for themselves. Dorrien argues that there is still time to redeem the hope of the 2008 election, bringing an end to the Reagan era. The Obama Question will stand as an insightful evaluation of a tumultuous presidency long after the next election has passed.

The Sadat Lectures is a compilation of thought-provoking speeches delivered by some of the most accomplished practitioners of international relations: Ezer Weizman, Jimmy Carter, Henry Kissinger, George Mitchell, Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan, Mary Robinson, James Baker, and Mohamed ElBaradei. Accompanying these speeches are full-color reproductions of winning artwork from the Sadat Art for Peace Award.

The normative power of the European Union has historically been a key element of its foreign policy. This study considers the EU's Central Asia policy, questioning whether the EU's normative power can work in this remote region.

As Africa and its diaspora commemorate fifty years of post-independence Pan-Africanism, this unique volume provides profound insight into the thirteen prominent individuals of African descent who have won the Nobel Peace Prize since 1950. From the first American president of African descent, Barack Obama, whose career was inspired by the civil rights and anti-apartheid struggles promoted by fellow Nobel Peace laureates Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and Albert Luthuli; to influential figures in peacemaking such as Ralph Bunche, Anwar Sadat, Kofi Annan, and F.W. De Klerk; as well as Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee, Wangari Maathai, and Mohamed El-Baradei, who have been variously involved in women's rights, environmental protection, and nuclear disarmament, Africa's Peacemakers reveals how this remarkable collection of individuals have changed the world - for better or worse.