...Most Nobelists don't have to wait 50 years for their achievements to be honored, but gaps of a decade or two are typical. Consider:

Max Planck's revolutionary paper on quantum theory was published in 1900; he received the Nobel Prize for it in 1918. Albert Einstein's discovery of the photoelectric effect -- a 1905 achivement -- earned him the Nobel Prize for physics in 1921. James Watson and Francis Crick figured out the structure of DNA in 1953; they didn't receive the Nobel Prize for medicine until 1962.

It is much the same with the literature Nobels. They aren't given for new writing or to an author in the first flush of acclaim. Almost always the prize has been made in recognition of a significant body of work produced -- and assessed -- over many years. In fact, many of the laureates received their Nobel only at the end of their lives. Albert Camus, Andre Gide, Pablo Neruda, and Boris Pasternak, to mention just a few, died less than five years after winning the prize.

All in all, there may be no testamentary instruction more regularly flouted than Alfred Nobel's stipulation that the annual prizes go to the people who had conferred the greatest benefit on mankind "during the preceding year." And a good thing, too. It means that before a scientist, author, or economist receives a Nobel Prize, his work has been sifted, weighed, put to the test of time. Its importance has been established, often through years of peer review. As a result, the science, literature, and economics Nobels rarely end up looking foolish or naive.

But the same can't be said of the peace prize.

While the other Nobels are awarded by committees of Swedish scholars and scientists, the peace laureate is chosen by a committee of Norwegian politicians. Like politicians everywhere, the peace prize committee tends to be more interested in what the headlines will say tomorrow than in what historians will believe 20 -- or 100 -- years from now. And unlike their Swedish counterparts, the Norwegians often intend their choice to have a political impact...