Has the Nobel Prize committee lost its marbles?

[chakka35]

The Nobel Prize for Peace has been awarded to the European Union on the grounds that the EU has kept the peace in Europe for yonks.

The only serious threat to European peace after WWII came from the Soviet Union and this was neutralised by NATO and the nuclear deterrent. The EU had nothing to do with it.

Can anyone name any other serious threat to European peace since then which the EU has neutralised?

[boxtops]

That's daft - were there no other entrants?

[emmie]

another thread on this, yes we all think it's bonkers.

[chakka35]

Sorrry, em10, I didn't realse that there was already a thread on this. Where is it, please?

[boxtops]

here http://www.theanswerb.../Question1178381.html

[ludwig]

// That's daft - were there no other entrants? //

Apparently North America made an entry on the basis that they'd not had a civil war for nearly 150 years. It was a close decision, but in the end Europe clinched it because they had more potential combatants than just the two.

[birdie1971]

I've no idea how some of the recipients of the 'peace' prize are chosen. It seems almost perverse.

For example, in 2009 they gave one to Barack Obama just 10 months into his presidency and while he was presiding over a country that was currently waging war in the middle east. In 2007 they gave one to Al Gore for making a documentary film that was so devoid of actual facts that it was ruled in a UK court that it shouldn't be shown to school children without first making it clear that the 'facts' it proclaimed to be true were (in fact) nothing of the sort. And then there's Yasser Arafat...

Maybe a few names are thrown into bag and someone picks one at random?

[naomi24]

http://en.wikipedia.o...iki/Nobel_Peace_Prize

[ichkeria]

Arguably the fact that the only serious threat to peace in Europe has come from the east is testimony to the work of the EU in the west. We take peace and stability in western Europe for granted these days.