Friday, October 09, 2009

The Secret Process For Picking Nobel Peace Laureates

The Norwegian Nobel Committee's surprise decision to award this year's peace prize to President Obama has once again thrown a spotlight on how such selections are made. It's a process famously shrouded in mystery.

Names of nominees are kept secret for 50 years, so it will be a long, long time before outsiders know for sure who else was among the record 205 people nominated for this year's prize. That secrecy, of course, helps fuel the vigorous guessing game sparked each October before the announcement.

There were no clear favorites this year, and Obama's selection came as a shock to most. After all, the deadline for submitting nominees to the committee was Feb. 1 — less than two weeks after Obama's inauguration.

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