Kuala Lampur, Jan. 3 -- There is a moment when a prize stops being symbolic and starts becoming operational.

The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize crossed that line almost immediately.

Within days of the announcement, Washington's posture towards Venezuela hardened in ways that felt less coincidental than choreographed. Intelligence activity intensified. Military assets repositioned. Briefings shifted from abstract pressure to actionable scenarios. The language of diplomacy gave way to the language of logistics.

Peace, it seemed, had been delivered - by aircraft carrier.

This is not how peace is supposed to work. But it is increasingly how it does.

For decades now, the Nobel Peace Prize has functioned less as a recognition of restraint than as ...