The Nobel Peace Prize

More than 250 people were nominated for the prize this year, and there had been speculation that the committee would reward activists from the Middle East who used social networking sites and other Internet platforms as they challenged entrenched dictatorships.

But if the committee had singled out the Arab Spring, it could have courted criticism that, far from rewarding efforts toward peace, it had chosen a phenomenon whose final outcome in Egypt and Tunisia is far from clear, and which has provoked bloodletting and strife in Libya, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain.

Mr. Jagland said the 2011 prize recognized those “who were there long before the world’s media was there reporting.”

The announcement in the Norwegian capital followed intense speculation that the prize would be awarded variously to a figure from the Arab Spring, the European Union or exclusively to Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf, 72, a Harvardeducated economist, who has often been cast as a pioneer in African politics.

She was broadly perceived as a reformer and peacemaker when she took office after several years in exile.

In Yemen, Ms. Karman has been widely known as a vocal opponent of the pro-American regime of Mr. Saleh since 2007, leading a human rights advocacy group called Women Journalists Without Chains. But it was only earlier this year that her readiness to take to the streets inspired thousands more in Yemen to do the same.

In Liberia, Ms. Gbowee, 39, was cited by the Nobel committee for uniting Christian and Muslim women against her country’s warlords. As head of the Women for Peace movement, she was praised for mobilizing women “across ethic and religious dividing lines to bring an end to the long war” that had raged for years in Liberia until its end in 2003 and for ensuring “women’s participation in elections.”

Adaptado de: <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/08/world/nobel-peace-prizejohnson-sirleaf-gbowee-karman.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp>