ElBaradei, IAEA win Nobel Peace Prize

By and large, there are three categories of Nobel Peace Prize winners: brave dissidents who put their very lives on the line while fighting totalitarian oppression; political leaders who achieve landmark peace agreements or diplomatic triumphs; or relatively toothless but supposedly well-intentioned international organizations, as often as not associated with the UN. This year's recipient falls into the third category:

The 2005 Nobel peace prize has been awarded jointly to Mohamed ElBaradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency that he leads.

The IAEA's director is a "fearless advocate" of curbing nuclear arms while the importance of his agency's work is "incalculable", the citation says.

The prize, which is worth $1.29m (£725,000), will be presented in December in the Norwegian capital.

It's not as bad as Yasser Arafat or Kim Dae-Jung winning, but I have a feeling this one isn't going to look so good in retrospect if Iran achieves its goal of nuclear weapons. Personally, I would have awarded the Prize to someone who led this past year's democratic uprisings in Lebanon, Ukraine or Turkmenistan.

Posted by damian at October 7, 2005 07:18 AM | TrackBack