LDYA Peace Prize -
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A short history of the Peace Prize
2024
David Swanson
David Swanson received ‘The Real Nobel Peace Prize’ in 2024.
Ten years ago, David Swanson established the organization World BEYOND War.
There are thousands of great organisations for peace around that world, but Fredrik Heffermehl, who helped found LDYA, saw in David Swanson and his work the kind of peace activism he believed was in the true spirit of Alfred Nobel.
David Swanson
David Swanson received ‘The Real Nobel Peace Prize’ in 2024.
Ten years ago, David Swanson established the organization World BEYOND War.
There are thousands of great organisations for peace around that world, but Fredrik Heffermehl, who helped found LDYA, saw in David Swanson and his work the kind of peace activism he believed was in the true spirit of Alfred Nobel.
David Swanson receiving the 2024 prize from John Y Jones
December 2024
December 2024
Photo
David Swanson, Heffermehl believed, dared to voice what many consider the ultimate naivety of demanding an end to all wars. "If guns are the answer, we would have had peace ages ago", Heffermehl said when he launched the book The Real Nobel Peace Prize.
David's book on NATO has been introduced by none other than professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University. "This book can save your life. In fact, everyone's lives", says Sachs. Nothing less
With talk shows, conferences, books, articles and films that seek paths to peace by laying down weapons and daring to end all wars, David Swanson fulfills in many ways the idea of how a true champion of peace should work, and is someone who will ultimately save lives – everyone's.
David's book on NATO has been introduced by none other than professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University. "This book can save your life. In fact, everyone's lives", says Sachs. Nothing less
With talk shows, conferences, books, articles and films that seek paths to peace by laying down weapons and daring to end all wars, David Swanson fulfills in many ways the idea of how a true champion of peace should work, and is someone who will ultimately save lives – everyone's.
You can read David's compelling acceptence speech here.
After the presentation of the LDYA Peace Prize to David Swanson there was a panel discussion held on the subject Peace is Possible.
You can find the video of this discussion here.
After the presentation of the LDYA Peace Prize to David Swanson there was a panel discussion held on the subject Peace is Possible.
You can find the video of this discussion here.
The History of the Lay Down Your Arms Peace Prize
The Lay Down Your Arms Peace Prize has its background in Nobel's ambition to not only reduce, but remove, the military, the weapons and consequently their manufacturers.
Peace in the world is not a trivial task. Man had wrapped himself in his own corpse, had poisoned the land, had become the ruler of the ashes. Became king of Hiroshima. King of Nagasaki. This is the culmination of the logic of weapons.
It was here that Fredrik Heffermehl thought we had failed, by not emphasising Nobel's fight against weapons. Lay Down Your Arms therefore determines to be a magnet that can also pull the Nobel Prize back towards the right direction.
From 1974 to 2024
Let's go back 50 years to 1974. Harry Martinson is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for a crushing criticism of his contemporaries - how man had destroyed his own basis of existence, his possibility for the future, for the experience of beauty.
1974 is the year when war president Richard Nixon had to resign. The US was about to be kicked out of Vietnam, and not least, the Nobel Peace Prize was given to Japanese Prime Minister Isaku Satō for his work in abolishing nuclear tests. Everything seemed to be going the way of peace. We had reasons to be optimists. Could we finally make out a world without wars, a world beyond war? 1974 was a good year for the peace movement.
Coming back to 2024, the warring parties in Ukraine threaten each other with nuclear weapons - NATO's bold threats about the first use of nuclear weapons led to Russia following up that autumn by copying NATO's threats. “We can allow ourselves to be the first to use nuclear weapons”, they both now say.
At the same time, we see a grotesque genocide of Israel, the country that has Yad Vashem inscribed in its DNA, against the Palestinians in Gaza.
The inaugural Lay Down Your Arms Prize
Gathering at The House of Literature on November 10, 2024, with the presentation of ‘the real Nobel Prize’, the idea was to point to Nobel's ambition to break down and remove the military, the weapons and consequently their manufacturers.
It is precisely in these time that we need men and women like David Swanson, who dare to look beyond wars, and see a possible future of cooperation between peoples, and not just to be perversely concerned with enmity and enemy images. Rather, by shifting the attention to dialogue, we can seek alternative paths to peace, and have the courage to name aloud the destructive forces, individuals and institutions that leave behind death and ashes.
Has anyone ever heard NATO talk about building peace? To build friendships? To build understanding?
Alfred Nobel believed that the ultimate weapon, which he saw coming, would be a weapon that could eliminate all life, and would not only make man the king of ashes but also give man the insight to make leaders and nations simply lay down their arms.
Peace in the world is not a trivial task. Man had wrapped himself in his own corpse, had poisoned the land, had become the ruler of the ashes. Became king of Hiroshima. King of Nagasaki. This is the culmination of the logic of weapons.
It was here that Fredrik Heffermehl thought we had failed, by not emphasising Nobel's fight against weapons. Lay Down Your Arms therefore determines to be a magnet that can also pull the Nobel Prize back towards the right direction.
From 1974 to 2024
Let's go back 50 years to 1974. Harry Martinson is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for a crushing criticism of his contemporaries - how man had destroyed his own basis of existence, his possibility for the future, for the experience of beauty.
1974 is the year when war president Richard Nixon had to resign. The US was about to be kicked out of Vietnam, and not least, the Nobel Peace Prize was given to Japanese Prime Minister Isaku Satō for his work in abolishing nuclear tests. Everything seemed to be going the way of peace. We had reasons to be optimists. Could we finally make out a world without wars, a world beyond war? 1974 was a good year for the peace movement.
Coming back to 2024, the warring parties in Ukraine threaten each other with nuclear weapons - NATO's bold threats about the first use of nuclear weapons led to Russia following up that autumn by copying NATO's threats. “We can allow ourselves to be the first to use nuclear weapons”, they both now say.
At the same time, we see a grotesque genocide of Israel, the country that has Yad Vashem inscribed in its DNA, against the Palestinians in Gaza.
The inaugural Lay Down Your Arms Prize
Gathering at The House of Literature on November 10, 2024, with the presentation of ‘the real Nobel Prize’, the idea was to point to Nobel's ambition to break down and remove the military, the weapons and consequently their manufacturers.
It is precisely in these time that we need men and women like David Swanson, who dare to look beyond wars, and see a possible future of cooperation between peoples, and not just to be perversely concerned with enmity and enemy images. Rather, by shifting the attention to dialogue, we can seek alternative paths to peace, and have the courage to name aloud the destructive forces, individuals and institutions that leave behind death and ashes.
Has anyone ever heard NATO talk about building peace? To build friendships? To build understanding?
Alfred Nobel believed that the ultimate weapon, which he saw coming, would be a weapon that could eliminate all life, and would not only make man the king of ashes but also give man the insight to make leaders and nations simply lay down their arms.
