Peace of Mind Trivia Quiz

Answer:

Some world leaders have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize during their tenure as leaders of their country, while others before or after. These were the first 15 to be honoured, with the quotes coming directly from the Nobel Prize website.

In 1906, US president Theodore Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his role in bringing to an end the bloody war recently waged between two of the world's great powers, Japan and Russia."

Belgian prime minister Auguste Beernaert was presented the Nobel Peace Prize in 1909, sharing it with French parliament member Paul Henri d'Estournelles de Constant, "for their prominent position in the international movement for peace and arbitration."

The Peace Prize was awarded to US president Woodrow Wilson at the 1919 ceremony, as he was recognized "for his role as founder of the League of Nations."

In 1920, Leon Bourgeois, the former prime minister of France, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his longstanding contribution to the cause of peace and justice and his prominent role in the establishment of the League of Nations." He served as the President of the Council of the League of Nations from 1920 to 1923).

The next year in 1921, the Nobel Peace Prize was presented to Prime Minister Hjalmar Branting of Sweden, "for [his] lifelong contributions to the cause of peace and organized internationalism." He shared the Prize with Christian Lous Lange, who was the Secretary General of Inter-Parliamentary Union in Brussels.

1926 saw French prime minister Aristide Briand accept the Prize alongside former German chancellor Gustav Stresemann "for their crucial role in bringing about the Locarno Treaty," which aimed at ensuring peace in Western Europe after World War I.

Future Canadian prime minister Lester Bowles Pearson was honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 "for his crucial contribution to the deployment of a United Nations Emergency Force in the wake of the Suez Crisis." He would go on to become Canada's 14th prime minister from 1963 to 1968.

West German Chancellor Willy Brandt was presented the Prize in 1971 "for paving the way for a meaningful dialogue between East and West," helping to ease the tensions of the Cold War.

After serving as Japan's prime minister between 1964 and 1972, Eisaku Sato was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974 "for his contribution to stabilize conditions in the Pacific rim area and for signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty."

In 1978, both the Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat and the Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin shared the Nobel Peace Prize "for jointly having negotiated peace between Egypt and Israel in 1978."

Future Polish president Lech Walesa was presented with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 "for non-violent struggle for free trade unions and human rights in Poland" while serving as the leader of the Solidarity movement. He would go on to become the first democratically elected president of Poland after the fall of communism, serving from 1990 until 1995.

The 1987 presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize went to Costa Rican president Oscar Arias "for his work for lasting peace in Central America," as he worked to establish the Esquipulas Peace Agreement, aimed at ending civil wars and promoting democracy in the region.

In 1990, while he was serving as both the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1985-1991) and the President of the Soviet Union (1990-1991), Mikhail Gorbachev was given the Nobel Peace Prize "for the leading role he played in the radical changes in East-West relations" through his policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) that transformed Soviet society and politics.