"The decision by the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award the European Union (EU) with the 2012 Peace Prize has come as a surprise to many. Defending its decision, the Committee in Oslo heralded over half a century of European stabilisation: ‘The union and its forerunners have for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe’.

The value of breaking your government’s monopoly on foreign policy cannot be discounted. For instance, veterans of the United States can connect veterans of Russia’s armed forces much better than a bureaucrat from the State Department can engage...

"We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society,"...The Committee said it hoped the three-way award "will help to bring an end to the suppression of women...

U.S. President Barack Obama recently met with the Dalai Lama at the White House despite strong objections from China. Shortly after the meeting, China expressed its high indignation and determined opposition in a stern formal complaint with the United States.

The Nobel Prize − that ultimate soft-power statement − must now compete with alternative human rights awards. Gadhafi could bestow his own award on Turkish premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan, from one moral paragon to another.

Last year, when China broke off military-to-military talks after the Obama administration’s long-expected sale of defensive arms to Taiwan, a high American official asked his Chinese counterpart why China reacted so strongly to something it had accepted in the past. The answer: “Because we were weak then and now we are strong.”

Anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, the Internet and a Russian human rights activist are among a record 241 nominations for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said on Tuesday that the 2011 field includes 53 organizations and tops last year's 237 nominees.

China rallied its diplomatic allies to boycott Friday's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, lobbied other nations not to attend the event and allowed scholars to announce a rival Confucius Peace Prize. But the diplomatic drive, backed by tough rhetoric from state media and the Foreign Ministry, appeared to have damaged China's image in Western nations, analysts said.