Alfred Nobel was born on October 23, 1833, and he blew out his candles for the last time on December 10, 1896.  And speaking of blowing things out... or up... Nobel is known for (among other things) inventing dynamite in 1687, which is a stabilized form of nitroglycerine.  And, as I’m sure you already know, dynamite isn’t much good without blasting caps.  Alfred invented those, too.  Reportedly, Nobel’s initial intentions with dynamite were in construction, but, like anything clever, somebody’s going to figure out a way to make it into a weapon.  Lest we feel too sorry for Mr. Nobel, among his other inventions, which included a precursor to plastic explosives, he founded an arms factory.  Yeah, he made weapons.  In fact, Nobel was once referred to as “the merchant of death.”  Perhaps that is why (though nobody knows for sure) Nobel left almost all of his vast fortune – around two billion US dollars – to making the various Nobel Prizes. 

And there is no Nobel Prize more prestigious than the one for Peace.  Nobel had intended that the Peace Prize goes to “those who have done the most to advance fellowship among nations, reduce or abolish standing armies, or promote peace congresses, applied to current global events and trends.”  Though there is often controversy over who receives the yearly prize, the Committee has pretty much stuck to those ideals over the years. 

If you want to receive the Nobel Peace Prize... and, I mean, who doesn’t? ...you first need to get nominated by an eligible nominator.  These nominators include past Nobel Prize Laureates, various lawmakers, university professors, and political types.  Really, it’s not hard to get nominated for a Nobel Prize, but that nomination really means little, if anything.  It’s not like being nominated for an Academy Award. 

The Committee does not tell anybody that they’ve been nominated.  The names of all nominees, as well as those nominating them, are kept confidential by the Committee for 50 years.  So the only way the rest of the world could know for sure that you’ve been nominated, aside from actually winning it, is if the person nominating you publicly admits it.  Take Donald Trump.  He’s been nominated several times by various partisan lawmakers, as well as by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who publicly showed Trump the nominating letter. 

Nominations began every year in September and run through January.  Those nominations are then delivered to the five people on the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, who are chosen by the Norwegian Parliament – the Storting.  They try to balance the members politically, so, for instance, there is a balance between conservatives and liberals.  Once appointed, though, those Committee members are completely independent of the Norwegian government, and pretty much everybody.  Each member serves for six years and can be re-elected only once.  Though many politicians are on the Committee, none can be currently active. 

So, yeah.  The Committee takes all the nominations and comes up with a shortlist, which they then run through a permanent panel of advisors and experts from the Norwegian Nobel Institute, which creates detailed reports of each candidate.  In short, they are thoroughly vetted.  A Nobel Peace Prize has never been revoked.

Then from February to August the Committee meets once a month to narrow down the list. Beginning in late August they try to come to a consensus for the winner.  If not, they eventually vote, with the winner decided by a simple majority.  Decisions are final.  There is no appeals process.  And, really, what kind of schmuck would argue that they should’ve gotten a peace prize? 

As well, once the prize has been awarded, it can’t be shared or transferred.  Well, yeah, you can give your prize to whomever you want, but it doesn’t mean squat as far as the Committee and the rest of the world are concerned.  Just like I can give you my college diploma, but you still won’t have a degree.  But if you do win, if you stop those wars you may have also started, then not only do you get a really nice medal and a certificate suitable for framing, the Nobel Peace Prize comes with a $1.1 million cash prize.  That would buy a lot of dynamite.