Santos Wins Peace Prize

Via the BBC:  Nobel Peace Prize for Colombia’s Juan Manuel Santos

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the 52-year conflict with left-wing rebels.

The Nobel committee in Norway praised him for his peace agreement with Farc rebels, signed last month after four years of negotiations.

However, Colombians narrowly rejected the deal in a vote last weekend.

[…]

Mr Santos was selected from a list of 376 candidates – 228 were individuals and 148 were organisations. They included:

  • the Syrian White Helmets, civil defence volunteers who rescue bomb victims
  • the negotiators of the international deal to limit Iran’s nuclear programme
  • Greek islanders on the front line of Europe’s refugee crisis.

The award did not include Farc leader Rodrigo Londono, known as Timochenko, who signed the accord with Mr Santos.

I had thought at one point Santos might win the award but thought that the failure of the plebiscite might have derailed the prize, at least for now.  This strikes me as an appropriate choice.

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Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. michael reynolds says:

    Answering the question, “Mommy? What’s irony?”