Fredrik Heffermehl
The Nobel Peace Prize Watch and TFF

Oslo & Gothenburg, October 9, 2020

To the media
COMMENT – NOBEL PEACE PRIZE 2020 – NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WATCH:

We recognise the great value of the World Food Program, but the 2020 prize is much less ambitious than Nobel’s idea of “conferring the greatest benefit on humankind”.

The committee again deals with arbitrary, single aspects of the war problem, and never addresses the root causes that Nobel wished to remove. (See his will here).

TFF Associate David Swanson, World Beyond War, has this to say: The Nobel Peace Prize Avoids Peace Again

With this addition – in English, Norwegian, Spanish, German, French, and Russian:

We had hoped the Norwegian committee this year would have formulated the idea of Nobel and committed to promoting his visionary plan for peace. As long as it fails to do so, the committee is handing out its own prize, not Nobel’s.

The committee should always repeat Mikhail Gorbachev’s persistent “I´ll never tire of repeating: we need to demilitarise world affairs, international politics and political thinking.“*

This was the core of Nobel´s intention, says Fredrik S. Heffermehl, a Norwegian jurist and author who just published a new study of the Norwegian mismanagement of the prize, Behind the medals, subtitled «One hundred years of unused opportunities».
* (Time, April 15, 2020)

Additional Comments from the Nobel Peace Prize Watch, Norway:
Fredrik S. Heffermehl, tel. +46 917 44 783 – fredpax@online.no
Sweden: Tomas Magnusson, tel. +46 708 29 3197 – gosta.tomas@gmail.com

Norsk
“Vi hadde håpet den norske komiteen i år ville ha formulert Nobels intensjon og forpliktet seg til å fremme hans visjonære plan for fred. Så lenge dette ikke skjer er det sin egen pris, ikke Nobels, komiteen utdeler. Komiteen burde alltid gjenta nobelprisvinneren Mikhail Gorbatsjovs vedholdende appell «Jeg blir aldri lei av å gjenta: vi må demilitarisere verden, internasjonal politikk og politisk tenkning.»* Dette er kjernen i Nobels intensjon, sier Fredrik S. Heffermehl, en norsk jurist og forfatter som nettopp publiserte en ny studie av den norske misforvaltningen av prisen, Bak medaljene, med underteksten «Hundre år med ubrukte muligheter”.

Spanish
“Esperábamos que el comité noruego en este año hubiera formulado la idea de Nobel y se hubiera comprometido a promover su plan visionario de paz. Mientras no lo haga, el comité está entregando su propio premio, no lo de Nobel. El comité siempre debería repetir la persistente de Mikhail Gorbachev: “No me cansaré de repetir: necesitamos desmilitarizar los asuntos mundiales, la política internacional y el pensamiento político”. * Este fue el núcleo de la intención de Nobel, dice Fredrik S. Heffermehl, un jurista y autor noruego que acaba de publicar un nuevo estudio sobre la mala gestión noruega del premio, Detrás de las medallas, subtitulado «Cien años de oportunidades no aprovechadas».

German
Wir hatten jedoch gehofft, das norwegische Komitee hätte in diesem Jahr die Idee des Nobelpreises formuliert und sich verpflichtet, seinen visionären Friedensplan zu fördern. Solange dies nicht geschieht, verteilt das Komitee nur seinen eigenen Preis, nicht Nobels. Das Komitee sollte immer Michail Gorbatschows beharrliches Wort wiederholen: “Ich werde nie müde, es zu wiederholen: Wir müssen die Weltpolitik, die internationale Politik und das politische Denken entmilitarisieren.” * Dies war der Kern von Nobels Absicht, sagt Fredrik S. Heffermehl, norwegischer Jurist und Autor, der gerade eine neue Studie über das norwegische Missmanagement des Preises “Hinter den Medaillen” mit dem Untertitel “Einhundert Jahre ungenutzter Möglichkeiten” veröffentlicht hat.”

French
Nous avions espéré que le comité norvégien en cette année aurait formulé l’idée de Nobel et se serait commis à promouvoir son plan visionnaire pour la paix. Tant qu’il ne le fera pas, le comité distribuera son propre prix, pas celui de Nobel. Le comité devrait toujours répéter l’insistance de Mikhail Gorbatchev: «Je ne me lasserai jamais de répéter: nous devons démilitariser les affaires mondiales, la politique internationale et la pensée politique.» * Telle était le cœur de l’intention de Nobel, déclare Fredrik S. Heffermehl, un juriste et auteur norvégien qui vient de publier une nouvelle étude sur la mauvaise gestion norvégienne du prix, Derrière les médailles, sous-titrée «Cent ans d’opportunités pas utilisées».

Russian
но мы надеялись, что норвежский комитет в этом году сформулировал бы идею Нобеля и взялся продвигать его дальновидный план мира. Пока это не удается, комитет вручает свою собственную премию, а не Нобелевскую премию. Комитет должен всегда повторять настойчивое заявление Михаила Горбачева «Я никогда не устану повторять: нам необходимо демилитаризовать мировые дела, международную политику и политическое мышление». * Это было сутью намерения Нобеля, говорит Фредрик С. Хеффермель, норвежский юрист и автор, который только что опубликовал новое исследование неправильного управления премией Норвегией «За медалями» с подзаголовком «Сто лет неиспользованных возможностей».

* (Time, April 15, 2020)

Additional Comments from the Nobel Peace Prize Watch:

Norway: Fredrik S. Heffermehl, tel. +46 917 44 783 – fredpax@online.no

Sweden: Tomas Magnusson, tel. +46 708 29 3197 – gosta.tomas@gmail.com

One Response

  1. For more than 100 years this price has been influenced by the Norwegian foreign policy, not the other way.

Related Posts

Tony Robinson October 4, 2026 Violence is easy to recognise when someone is being beaten, shot or killed. It becomes more difficult when nobody is holding a weapon. Poverty, discrimination, exploitation and repression can restrict a human life just as effectively, although they do so in very different ways and with very different consequences. Simply adding more categories to an ever-growing list of forms of violence does not really solve the problem. The more interesting question is what all these different situations have in common and why it makes sense to describe them using the same word. Human beings do not simply react to what happens around them. They remember the past, imagine things that do not yet exist, make plans and undertake projects. Workers organise because they imagine different working conditions; people migrate because they imagine another life somewhere else; social movements emerge because people refuse to accept the...
It’s a matter of principles, courage, vision and pulling together – while the militarist world is falling apart… Peter Langille October 3, 2026 “Here, then, is the problem which we present to you, stark and dreadful and inescapable: Shall we put an end to the human race; or shall mankind renounce war?”The Bertrand Russell—Albert Einstein Manifesto, July 9, 1955 ⁕ The forecast for what’s ahead is worrisome. The sharp rise in armed conflicts over the past three years is adding to what was already the highest level in over seventy years. Genocides, which should be prevented are supported. A shared climate emergency that jeopardises survival is ignored. Diverse polls now suggest that people are war-weary, worried and interested in a more effective United Nations. And, there are viable policy options for a more secure world! Yet governments are doubling-down, betting on more war and investing heavily. If current trends persist,...
Johan Galtung 1930-2024October 2015 Published here on October 3, 2026 Let us focus on Civilization for conflict analysis and remedies. Major forms of disorder use violence; war is state organized violence. The most belligerent states are the United States of America and Israel, both with civilization roots. National Evangelism, the US Protestant Christian civilization– more national than evangelical–justifies US warfare as exceptionalism of a people chosen by God, with a manifest destiny to run the world. Orthodox Judaism justifies Israeli warfare to conquer and expand from Nile to Euphrates as a religious right and duty to the Eternal One. The third most belligerent country, the UK, no longer believes it is God-chosen but chosen by the USA; not quite the same but something. But the root cause of global disorder lies in the Occident–with Islam–seeing itself as the single, universal civilization valid for all at all times, all others being...

Recent Articles

Tony Robinson October 4, 2026 Violence is easy to recognise when someone is being beaten, shot or killed. It becomes more difficult when nobody is holding a weapon. Poverty, discrimination, exploitation and repression can restrict a human life just as effectively, although they do so in very different ways and with very different consequences. Simply adding more categories to an ever-growing list of forms of violence does not really solve the problem. The more interesting question is what all these different situations have in common and why it makes sense to describe them using the same word. Human beings do not simply react to what happens around them. They remember the past, imagine things that do not yet exist, make plans and undertake projects. Workers organise because they imagine different working conditions; people migrate because they imagine another life somewhere else; social movements emerge because people refuse to accept the...
It’s a matter of principles, courage, vision and pulling together – while the militarist world is falling apart… Peter Langille October 3, 2026 “Here, then, is the problem which we present to you, stark and dreadful and inescapable: Shall we put an end to the human race; or shall mankind renounce war?”The Bertrand Russell—Albert Einstein Manifesto, July 9, 1955 ⁕ The forecast for what’s ahead is worrisome. The sharp rise in armed conflicts over the past three years is adding to what was already the highest level in over seventy years. Genocides, which should be prevented are supported. A shared climate emergency that jeopardises survival is ignored. Diverse polls now suggest that people are war-weary, worried and interested in a more effective United Nations. And, there are viable policy options for a more secure world! Yet governments are doubling-down, betting on more war and investing heavily. If current trends persist,...
Johan Galtung 1930-2024October 2015 Published here on October 3, 2026 Let us focus on Civilization for conflict analysis and remedies. Major forms of disorder use violence; war is state organized violence. The most belligerent states are the United States of America and Israel, both with civilization roots. National Evangelism, the US Protestant Christian civilization– more national than evangelical–justifies US warfare as exceptionalism of a people chosen by God, with a manifest destiny to run the world. Orthodox Judaism justifies Israeli warfare to conquer and expand from Nile to Euphrates as a religious right and duty to the Eternal One. The third most belligerent country, the UK, no longer believes it is God-chosen but chosen by the USA; not quite the same but something. But the root cause of global disorder lies in the Occident–with Islam–seeing itself as the single, universal civilization valid for all at all times, all others being...

TFF on Substack

Discover and subscribe to more peace materials on TFF Substack

Most Popular

Tony Robinson October 4, 2026 Violence is easy to recognise when someone is being beaten, shot or killed. It becomes more difficult when nobody is holding a weapon. Poverty, discrimination, exploitation and repression can restrict a human life just as effectively, although they do so in very different ways and with very different consequences. Simply adding more categories to an ever-growing list of forms of violence does not really solve the problem. The more interesting question is what all these different situations have in common and why it makes sense to describe them using the same word. Human beings do not simply react to what happens around them. They remember the past, imagine things that do not yet exist, make plans and undertake projects. Workers organise because they imagine different working conditions; people migrate because they imagine another life somewhere else; social movements emerge because people refuse to accept the...
It’s a matter of principles, courage, vision and pulling together – while the militarist world is falling apart… Peter Langille October 3, 2026 “Here, then, is the problem which we present to you, stark and dreadful and inescapable: Shall we put an end to the human race; or shall mankind renounce war?”The Bertrand Russell—Albert Einstein Manifesto, July 9, 1955 ⁕ The forecast for what’s ahead is worrisome. The sharp rise in armed conflicts over the past three years is adding to what was already the highest level in over seventy years. Genocides, which should be prevented are supported. A shared climate emergency that jeopardises survival is ignored. Diverse polls now suggest that people are war-weary, worried and interested in a more effective United Nations. And, there are viable policy options for a more secure world! Yet governments are doubling-down, betting on more war and investing heavily. If current trends persist,...
Johan Galtung 1930-2024October 2015 Published here on October 3, 2026 Let us focus on Civilization for conflict analysis and remedies. Major forms of disorder use violence; war is state organized violence. The most belligerent states are the United States of America and Israel, both with civilization roots. National Evangelism, the US Protestant Christian civilization– more national than evangelical–justifies US warfare as exceptionalism of a people chosen by God, with a manifest destiny to run the world. Orthodox Judaism justifies Israeli warfare to conquer and expand from Nile to Euphrates as a religious right and duty to the Eternal One. The third most belligerent country, the UK, no longer believes it is God-chosen but chosen by the USA; not quite the same but something. But the root cause of global disorder lies in the Occident–with Islam–seeing itself as the single, universal civilization valid for all at all times, all others being...
Read More
Living-Peace-Sign-Budapest-copy
Tony Robinson October 4, 2026 Violence is easy to recognise when someone is being beaten, shot or killed. It becomes more difficult when nobody is holding a weapon. Poverty, discrimination, exploitation and repression can restrict a human life just as effectively, although they do so in very different ways and with very different consequences. Simply adding more categories to an ever-growing list of forms of violence does not really solve the problem. The more interesting question is what all these different situations have in common and why it makes sense to describe them using the same word. Human beings do not simply react to what happens around them. They remember the past, imagine things that do not yet exist, make plans and undertake projects. Workers organise because they imagine different working conditions; people migrate because they imagine another life somewhere else; social movements emerge because people refuse to accept the...
b54a1f10-8c65-4f0b-9dd5-4abc0a7d04cc_2659x2659
It’s a matter of principles, courage, vision and pulling together – while the militarist world is falling apart… Peter Langille October 3, 2026 “Here, then, is the problem which we present to you, stark and dreadful and inescapable: Shall we put an end to the human race; or shall mankind renounce war?”The Bertrand Russell—Albert Einstein Manifesto, July 9, 1955 ⁕ The forecast for what’s ahead is worrisome. The sharp rise in armed conflicts over the past three years is adding to what was already the highest level in over seventy years. Genocides, which should be prevented are supported. A shared climate emergency that jeopardises survival is ignored. Diverse polls now suggest that people are war-weary, worried and interested in a more effective United Nations. And, there are viable policy options for a more secure world! Yet governments are doubling-down, betting on more war and investing heavily. If current trends persist,...
010
Johan Galtung 1930-2024October 2015 Published here on October 3, 2026 Let us focus on Civilization for conflict analysis and remedies. Major forms of disorder use violence; war is state organized violence. The most belligerent states are the United States of America and Israel, both with civilization roots. National Evangelism, the US Protestant Christian civilization– more national than evangelical–justifies US warfare as exceptionalism of a people chosen by God, with a manifest destiny to run the world. Orthodox Judaism justifies Israeli warfare to conquer and expand from Nile to Euphrates as a religious right and duty to the Eternal One. The third most belligerent country, the UK, no longer believes it is God-chosen but chosen by the USA; not quite the same but something. But the root cause of global disorder lies in the Occident–with Islam–seeing itself as the single, universal civilization valid for all at all times, all others being...
Screenshot 2026-10-02 011738
Jan ObergPhD, director, The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research, TFFLund, Sweden October 2, 2026 This is my full original manuscript. The Chinese Academy of Social Science, CASS, makes two publications out if it. 1. China’s Five-year plan emphasized the capabilities of basic research and original innovation. It is regarded as the goal of the future social development, which, as required, should be significantly enhanced. Can you comment on the importance of original innovation in research and academic study? I believe it is easier to define “original innovation” in the natural sciences than in social sciences. The breaking points of what constitutes something new, or innovative, are not quite as sharp in the latter. But in both fields it is about opening up something that was closed, unseen, unexplored before – making manifest what was earlier latent. Innovations come in many forms and shapes – naming something that was not...
arctic-circle-map
The agreement is catastrophic both because of what it says and what it doesn’t mention. It reduces further the major asset of security policies: Freedom of action. Jan Oberg TFF director September 25, 2026 A couple of hours before the agreement was signed on September 22, 2026, I published the following 13 hypotheses about what it would most likely contain on TFF Substack (in English). I was wrong on only the first point. Contrary to what Trump had written on his Truth Social platform, it does not appear to come into force immediately. In fact, it turned out to be worse than even I had anticipated. After these hypotheses now come a number of reflections in light of what the agreement actually contains, and does not contain, as well as the way in which it has generally been presented by major media outlets and by the public-service broadcaster DR. My...
girl-5894831_1280
Below are TFF-related media mentions, comments, videos and social media posts published elsewhere but not on this homepage. We happen to catch and list only a fraction. Regarding video comments and debates, we recommend that you go to the TFF Video Channel on Substack where many of them are reproduced. Jan Oberg is a contributor to China Daily – 52 million daily clicks – and Global Times, CGTN and CCTV (the national television), China Investment, Xinhua News Agency and several others. Articles and videos on these media very often multiply into countless Chinese (and Western media) that re-post them from these main media. Thanks to The China Academy, his analyses, interviews and comments are frequently posted on YouTube channels such as Thinkers Forum and Wave Media. These videos are often re-posted on Bilibili (China’s YouTube), the China Content Center on TikTok, and on the Chinese edition of TikTok, Douyin.com. This means reaching hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide over a year. While there are too many to catch on all these...