In the autumn of 2025 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. For many observers it felt like more than a prize. It felt like a statement.
The decision immediately triggered the familiar reactions that follow many Nobel Peace Prize announcements. Some celebrated it as a moral stand. Others asked whether the Norwegian Nobel Committee had stepped into politics.
Those debates are nothing new. In fact, controversy has accompanied the Peace Prize almost from the beginning.
To understand why, we have to travel back to a moment in the late nineteenth century when a Swedish industrialist opened a newspaper and discovered that the world believed he was already dead.
And worse: That his legacy was destruction.
The day Alfred Nobel read his own obituary
Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm in 1833 into a family of engineers and inventors. His father Immanuel Nobel worked with explosives, military technology and engineering projects across Europe and Russia.
Alfred grew up in laboratories, workshops and shipyards. He was educated in chemistry, languages and engineering, and he quickly proved to be an extraordinary inventor.
His most famous invention came in 1867: dynamite.
Dynamite revolutionized the world. It made it possible to carve railways through mountains, dig tunnels and canals, build roads and reshape landscapes. It accelerated industrialization across Europe and North America.
But dynamite also had another side. Explosives quickly became part of warfare. And Nobel’s companies made enormous profits selling them.
By the time Alfred Nobel reached middle age, he was one of the richest industrialists in Europe. He owned factories in more than twenty countries and held over 350 patents.
Then, in 1888, something strange happened.
Alfred’s brother Ludvig Nobel died in Cannes. Several newspapers mistakenly believed that Alfred himself had died, and one French paper published an obituary under the headline:
“Le marchand de la mort est mort.”
The merchant of death is dead.
The article accused him of having become rich by finding new ways to kill people faster than ever before.
Alfred Nobel was very much alive when he read it. No one knows exactly what went through his mind in that moment. But the story has become part of Nobel mythology: a wealthy industrialist suddenly confronted with the reputation he would leave behind.
Whether the obituary alone changed his thinking is debated by historians. But within a few years, Nobel wrote one of the most unusual wills in modern history. And what he did no doubt changed his legacy. When we hear the word "Nobel" today, most of us think of peace, fewer of explosives and death.
A fortune dedicated to humanity
In 1895 Alfred Nobel signed his final will in Paris.
Instead of leaving his enormous fortune to family members, he ordered that most of it be invested and used to create a set of annual prizes.
The prizes would go to people who had done the greatest benefit to humanity in five fields: Physics; Chemistry; Medicine; Literature: and Peace.
The last one stood apart from the others.
Nobel wrote that the Peace Prize should be awarded to the person who had done the most or best work for “fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”
And then came the detail that would forever link the prize to Norway.
Nobel specified that the Peace Prize should be awarded not in Sweden, but by a committee appointed by the Norwegian parliament.
Why the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo
When Alfred Nobel wrote his will, Sweden and Norway were still united in a political union under the same king. The union had lasted since 1814.
Sweden handled foreign policy. Norway had its own parliament and government, but was politically the smaller partner.
Why Nobel chose Norway has never been fully explained. But historians usually highlight three possible reasons.
First, Norway had a strong reputation in the late nineteenth century as a country active in international peace movements and arbitration efforts.
Second, the Norwegian parliament (the Storting) was seen as relatively independent from the great power politics of Europe.
Third, Nobel may have believed that giving the responsibility to Norway would strengthen the legitimacy of the prize.
Whatever the reason, the arrangement survived the dramatic moment when the union between Sweden and Norway dissolved peacefully in 1905.
And so, more than a century later, the Nobel Peace Prize is still awarded in Oslo.
Today the ceremony takes place in the grand hall of Oslo City Hall every 10 December, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.
The Peace Prize becomes the most political Nobel Prize
The scientific Nobel prizes tend to generate admiration and curiosity.
The Peace Prize generates debate.
From the very beginning the prize has reflected global conflicts and hopes for peace. But the definition of “peace work” has evolved over time.
Early laureates included diplomats, peace activists and international arbitration advocates.
Later prizes recognized civil rights leaders, dissidents, humanitarian organizations and political leaders.
Sometimes the choices have been widely celebrated. People like Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela and Malala Yousafzai mostly were welcomed and applauded.
At other times they have sparked fierce criticism.
Few prizes illustrate this better than the award in 1973 to Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho for negotiating the Paris Peace Accords during the Vietnam War. The war continued and Le Duc Tho refused the prize.
In 1994 the award to Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres divided public opinion across the world.
In 2009 the prize to Barack Obama came only months after he entered office as President of the United States, leading some critics to call it a prize for promise rather than achievement.
The Nobel Committee has always insisted that its decisions are independent. The five members are appointed by the Norwegian parliament, but they operate autonomously.
From a Norwegian perspective, the committee does not represent the government or parliament.
But convincing the rest of the world of that independence has not always been easy.
The 2025 prize and the tradition of controversy
The award to María Corina Machado in 2025 fits into this long tradition.
Supporters praised the decision as recognition of democratic resistance in Venezuela. Critics questioned whether the committee was stepping into an ongoing political struggle.
That tension — between moral recognition and geopolitical interpretation — is almost unavoidable. The Peace Prize does not operate in a laboratory. It operates in the real world. And the real world is political.
A small country with a global ceremony
For visitors to Oslo, the Nobel Peace Prize is one of the most visible reminders that this relatively small city plays an outsized role on the global stage.
Each December the ceremony transforms Oslo into the focal point of international media attention.
The laureate receives the prize in the city hall. The Nobel Peace Center across the square presents exhibitions about peace work and past laureates.
Diplomats, activists, journalists and political leaders gather in a city better known for fjords, forests and winter light.
It is an unusual tradition.
The scientific Nobel prizes are awarded in Stockholm.
But the world’s most politically charged prize is awarded here in Oslo.
The legacy of Alfred Nobel
Alfred Nobel died in 1896 in San Remo, Italy. When his will became public, it shocked his relatives and confused governments. It took several years of legal negotiations before the Nobel Foundation was established and the prizes could begin.
The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901. More than a century later they remain among the most prestigious recognitions in the world.
Whether one sees the Peace Prize as inspiring, controversial or sometimes both, it has achieved something remarkable.
It forces the world to talk about peace.
And it all began with a man who once opened a newspaper and saw himself described as the merchant of death.
