Si vis pacem, para bellum. In less than a month, on October 11th, the Norwegian Nobel Committee will announce the next Nobel Peace Prize. Over the past twelve years, the Norwegian Committee has often made bold choices, awarding the price to individuals and organizations whose stories, examples, heroism and work demonstrate something that the International public opinion does not always associate with the word “peace”: freedom. In 2014, the Nobel was awarded to Malala Yousafzai, whose rebellion against Islamic extremism –which aimed at keeping women away from education – inspired a generation of schoolgirls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 2023, the Nobel was given to Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian human rights activist imprisoned in the Evin prison of Tehran. This year, there are many known stories around the world that testify to great battles fought in the defense of freedom. However, no story matches the strength of a figure who, for two and a half years, has done more than anyone else to protect our freedom, as well as that of his people, and to defend the liberal world order whose cornerstone is the defense of peace. Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine. No one in the world has done more than Zelensky to send a clear message to dictators across the globe - from Erdogan to Xi Jinping, and of course, to Putin: the West is not soft like butter; democracy knows how to defend itself; open societies have the antibodies to resist aggression; and illiberal regimes that seek to use force to impose their will must know they will encounter a solid wall of those who want to defend peace. By defending his country, Zelensky has done more to fight the enemies of peace than most Nobel Peace Prize winners have done in their careers (for those who forgot it happened, the Nobel was awarded to Barack Obama in 2009, although no one still understands why - an inquiry commission is urgently needed). Zelensky has cut back Vladimir Putin’s expansionist dreams, breathed new life into Nato, pushed neutral countries to choose sides, exposed the useful idiots of dictatorships, forced the European Union to emancipate itself from Russian dependence, and reminded the world that open societies – despite their flaws, their imperfections, and their problems – know that when the borders of democracies are under attack, waving white flags, as repeatedly suggested by the hypocritical pacifist international movement over these months, is the worst way to protect peace. If all this was not enough to explain why the international community – besides sending weapons to Ukraine and allowing Zelensky to use them where and how it's needed to defend his country – should unite in calling for the Ukrainian President to be made a symbol of peace defense, one could make an additional effort and recall that twelve years ago, in 2012, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the very European Union that Zelensky is now defending with all his might. “For over six decades,” wrote the Nobel Peace Prize committee on October 12, 2012, “the European Union has contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy, and human rights.” Zelensky is defending all of this. And he is also reminding us, as St. Augustine wrote in his famous letter number 189, that if you want to defend peace, you might have to prepare to fight. “Peace,” said St. Augustine, “must be in the will, and war only a necessity, so that God may free us from the necessity and keep us in peace. For we do not seek peace to provoke war, but we wage war to obtain peace! Even in waging war, be inspired by peace so that, in winning, you may bring those you defeat into the good of peace.” Si vis pacem, para bellum. And if you want to defend freedom, today the Nobel Peace Prize can only be awarded to him: to the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.
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