A NECESSARY FOOTNOTE

I once claimed that I was a "Nobel Peace Prize finalist," but have changed this to "frequently nominated." This latest claim is based on the following published remark by per Ahlmark, the Former Deputy-Prime Minister of Sweden, and former President of the Swedish Liberal Party, who first nominated me, and wrote the following (in Swedish, and translated by a Swedish correspondent):

In 1999 he [Per Ahlmark] said: "Jag kommer under n�sta �rtionde att uth�lligt nominera Rummel till Nobels fredspris." Translation: "During the next decade I will persistently nominate Rummel to the Nobel Peace Prize." So, it's a fair bet that he will continue to do this as long as he can.

My claim that I was a finalist was based on media reports, particularly the one below: from the Honolulu Advertiser (3/1/96):

Rudolph Rummel's lifelong study of war, violence and mass killing has led him on a quest for peace. So it is only fitting that . . . he is among 117 finalists for the prize, which will be announced in October.

Recently, a colleague who I highly respect, is a friend who supports my research, and who is knowledgeable about the workings of the Nobel Committee tried to persuade me to drop the claim to being a finalist as not too important, and anyway, to people like him in the know, it looked "foolish." Through our exchange on this and my locating the AP wire on which the media based its news item, it is clear that the media misunderstood the meaning of this that appeared in the wire:

"I can only say that we now have a final count on nominations. There are 117 this year, including 28 organizations,'' said Geir Lundestad, the committee's non-voting secretary. The number in past years has been between 120 and 130."

I passed this on to my colleague, who responded:

There is no list of 'finalists' containing 117 names. . . . Nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize are made throughout the year and when the deadline expires, there is a 'final' list, as distinct from a preliminary list at any earlier time. Perhaps the list of 117 is weeded in the sense that nominations received from people who are not qualified to nominate (the criteria are on the Nobel Institute website) are eliminated, but everyone else is on the 'final' list (including Clinton, Castro -- if he was nominated that year - and you).

Thus, I dropped the "finalist" bit.

What is evident in communication on this is that the Northern Europeans with whom I am in contact seem to have a nonchalant attitude toward the Nobel Peace Nomination. Americans do not. Of whatever I've achieved, this is the one thing that people center on, and that gives my research on the democratic peace and its promotion the most credibility for Americans.

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