The 1912 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Elihu Root of the United States for his strong interest in international arbitration and for his plan for a world court. Root was both Secretary of War (under McKinley and Roosevelt), Secretary of State (under Roosevelt) and became a US Senator in 1909, where he served until 1915. He was later the first president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, among the founders of the American Law Institute and helped create the Hague Academy of International Law in the Netherlands. Root served as vice president of the American Peace Society, which publishes World Affairs, the oldest U.S. journal on international relations.
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes created by the Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel. Since 1901 it has been awarded annually (with some exceptions) to those who have “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses” Over the next few months we’ll be introducing you to the past Nobel laureates, leading up to the award of the 2016 prize in October.
