An anonymous US politician has put forward Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The nominator, likely to be a Republican senator or congressman — both of whom are eligible — submitted the nomination only days before the deadline of February 1, reported The Telegraph. The nomination praised the way Trump’s bellicose foreign policy ideology functioned as “a threat weapon of deterrence against radical Islam, ISIS [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant - Isil], nuclear Iran and Communist China”, citing “his vigorous peace-through-strength ideology”.
Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of Oslo’s Peace Research Institute, which publishes an annual prediction of the likely prize-winner, confirmed that he had been sent a copy of the Trump nomination letter last week.
“I have committed not to reveal the identity of the nominator, but what I can say is that the nominator has shared a copy of his nomination letter directly with me, that the nominator has a position which gives him the right to nominate, and that I consider it valid,” said Mr Harpviken.
Mr Harpviken described a Trump prize as “entirely unlikely”, arguing that the reason put forward, which appeared to be "about the necessity of confrontation rather than anything else" would not convince the five-member committee.
He suspected that the Trump nomination might be little more than a cynical publicity ploy.
“The person who suggested it may genuinely mean it, but the person who suggested it may also realise that the very fact that Trump’s nomination gets confirmed has considerable interest in its own right, and that all publicity is good publicity.
“The fact that you’re asking me about his nomination indicates that, if that was the thinking, it worked.”
Trump’s nomination comes after he admitted defeat to rival Ted Cruz in the Iowa caucus after weeks of being billed as the Republican frontrunner. He made a number of inflammatory and divisive comments in the run up to the caucus.
The billionaire business magnate endeared himself to Katie Hopkins by proposing that Muslims be banned from entering the US and has been condemned for his comments about immigration and Mexican migrants, with one of his most infamous pledges being to build a “big beautiful wall” between the US and Mexico.
Mr Harpviken's shortlist of the eleven most likely winners was this year headed by US surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden. His second tip is the duo of Ernest Moniz, the US energy secretary, and Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran for their part in the Iran nuclear deal.
The third most likely winner in his opinion was the duo of Timoleón Jiménez, head of Colombia’s FARC guerrillas, and Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, for their part in peace talks to end the long-running Columbian civil war.
Thousands of people are eligible to submit nominations for the Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel committee typically receives more than 200 nominations.
Previous nominees have included German dictator Adolf Hitler, who was nominated by Swedish MP Erik Brandt in 1939, Soviet leader Josef Stalin who was nominated both in 1945 and 1948, and Russian president Vladimir Putin, who was nominated in 2014.
The winner of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in early October.