Nobel Peace Prize has no clear winner
No clear favourite has emerged for this year's Nobel Prize, in a world beset by conflict and bereft of examples of inspiring leadership
In a world racked by war, the search for a worthy Nobel Peace Prize laureate presents a daunting challenge. Where on the planet can a person or organisation be found to have alleviated the bloodshed and cruelty that have afflicted humankind?
US Secretary of State John Kerry all but gave up on the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks this year as the most entrenched conflict in the region slid into another spasm of deadly destruction in the Gaza Strip.
Lakhdar Brahimi, the veteran UN diplomat charged with negotiating an end to the nearly four-year-old civil war in Syria, quit in May after a dispiriting spate of fruitless peace conferences, efforts that his replacement, Staffan de Mistura, has not even managed to reconvene.
No statesmen of the likes of South Africa's late Nelson Mandela (1993 laureate) or Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (1990) or former US president Jimmy Carter (2002) stood out as inspiring examples of leadership in the year preceding the February 1 deadline for nominations.
Nor did any religious leader make a noticeable contribution to world peace, although Pope Francis was nominated this year by the parliament of his native Argentina and has made some bold strides towards returning the Catholic Church to a ministry focused on the plight of the poor. Still, the soft-spoken pontiff , who has eschewed the trappings of the Vatican for a more humble lifestyle and wardrobe, has only been in office for 19 months, and Pope John Paul was not recognised by the Nobel Committee during a nearly 27-year papacy dedicated to the cause of peace.
