The Nobel Peace Prize committee is under scrutiny ahead of this year's announcement, following intense lobbying from US President Donald Trump last year. The five-member committee faced unprecedented pressure after Trump's outspoken calls for the accolade. This situation became more delicate when Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, the 2025 laureate, gave Trump her Nobel gold medal, citing his efforts in the capture of President Nicolas Maduro.
The Nobel committee secretary, Kristian Berg Harpviken, acknowledged that the committee is accustomed to lobbying and attempts to exert pressure. However, experts believe that the Trump saga may lead the committee to choose a laureate who enjoys broad consensus. The acting director of the Peace Research Institute of Oslo, Haakon Gjerlow, suggested that a joint prize to Save the Children and Mykola Kuleba, a Ukrainian children's rights activist, could be a suitable choice.
Gjerlow's other favourites for the Nobel Peace Prize include Sudan's Emergency Response Rooms (ERR), a network of volunteers risking their lives to help people facing war and hunger, and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), given the deadliest year on record for the profession in 2025. The International Space Station is also a potential candidate. If the committee is prepared to go head-to-head with Trump, other choices could be the UN special rapporteur on occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese or the International Criminal Court.
The Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced on October 8, with speculation already underway in Sweden's literary circles. The Swedish Academy, which selects the literature laureate, could go for a woman writer from Latin America this year. Argentine author Samanta Schweblin, 48, is considered an interesting and surprising choice, while Antiguan-American author Jamaica Kincaid and Chinese writer Can Xue are also potential candidates.
The Nobel season begins with the medicine prize, which experts say could go to research into the GLP-1 appetite-regulating hormone behind weight-loss drugs like Ozempic. The physics prize will be announced on Tuesday, followed by the chemistry prize on Wednesday, and the economics prize on October 13. The Nobel Prize consists of a diploma, a gold medal, and a cheque for around $1.2 million, to be shared if there are multiple laureates.
The Swedish Academy has faced criticism for its focus on male, Western authors and was rocked by a MeToo scandal in 2018. Since then, nearly every other laureate has been a woman. The Academy has long been criticised for its secrecy, with the list of nominees and jury deliberations kept secret for 50 years.
The Nobel Peace Prize announcement is scheduled for October 9, with the committee treading carefully to avoid controversy. The laureate will be chosen based on their contributions to peace, with the committee considering various factors, including the impact of their work and the level of consensus surrounding their nomination.
Key points
- The Nobel Peace Prize committee faces pressure after Trump's outspoken calls for the accolade last year.
- The committee may choose a laureate who enjoys broad consensus to avoid controversy.
- The Nobel Prize in Literature may go to a woman writer from Latin America this year.
