The Global South vs. Trump: A Clash of Nobel Priorities

In recent decades, the Nobel Peace Prize has increasingly focused on issues of critical importance to the Global South, such as poverty, hunger, women’s rights, and the effects of climate change. This shift in priorities presents another major obstacle for Donald Trump, whose “America First” agenda is often seen as indifferent or hostile to the concerns of developing nations.
Laureates like Wangari Maathai, Muhammad Yunus, and the World Food Programme represent the committee’s commitment to a broader definition of peace, one that includes development, environmental justice, and human security. They recognize that peace cannot flourish in a world of extreme inequality and environmental degradation.
Trump’s presidency, in contrast, was marked by a reduction in foreign aid, a withdrawal from global climate initiatives that disproportionately affect the Global South, and a general skepticism toward development goals set by the United Nations. His focus was on great power politics and bilateral trade deals, not on the systemic issues that plague much of the world’s population.
This creates a profound disconnect. The Nobel Committee has been using its platform to amplify the voices and concerns of the Global South, while Trump’s policies have often been seen as undermining them. To award him the prize would be a sharp reversal of this trend and a betrayal of the very people and causes the committee has sought to champion.
The Nobel Peace Prize is a global award, and the committee is increasingly selecting laureates whose work reflects the challenges faced by the majority of the world’s people. Trump’s narrow, nationalist focus is out of step with this global perspective. The committee is far more likely to choose a grassroots activist or a humanitarian organization working on the front lines of poverty or climate change than a Western leader seen as indifferent to their plight.