This is a list of the heads of state and heads of government who have been nominated for the Nobel Prize.
Nomination forms for the Nobel Prize are sent by the Nobel Committee to about 3,000 individuals, usually in September the year before the prizes are awarded. The Nobel Committee nominates about 300 potential laureates from these forms and additional names. The nominees are not publicly named, nor are they told that they are being considered for the prize. All nomination records for a prize are sealed for 50 years from the awarding of the prize.
Heads of state and government Nobel Peace Prize nominees
PortraitNomineeYearsCountryStatusRationaleTsar Nikolai II of Russia
(1868–1918)1901Emperor of All Imperial Russia (1894–1917).Nikolai II initiated the First Hague Peace Conference in 1899. The tsar's intention was to seek agreements to limit armaments and the financial burden of excessive armament, and to improve the prospects of peaceful settlement of international conflicts and to codify the laws of war.Paul de Smet de Naeyer
(1843–1913)1905Prime Minister of Belgium (1896–1907)Smet de Naeyer was nominated for his efforts to accomplish an international agreement concerning the sugar industry. Nominated the only time by Baron de Aulnis de Bourrouil. Theodore Roosevelt
(1858–1919)190626th President of the United States (1901–1909)Roosevelt mediated in the Russo–Japanese War (1904–05). His efforts led to the peace treaty of 1905. He made use of the Permanent Court of Arbitration on several occasions. Won the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize. Hjalmar Branting
(1860–1925)1906, 1913, 1914, 1921Prime Minister of Sweden (1920) (1921–1923) (1924–1925)Branting promoted peace and anti–militarism. He contributed to the peaceful dissolution of the Swedish–Norwegian Union in 1905 and worked to establish good relations between the two countries. He was one of the foremost members of the international social democratic movement and he exercised great influence on its peace work. Shared the 1921 Nobel Peace Prize with Christian Louis Lange. Léon Bourgeois
(1851–1925)1908, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1918, 1919, 1920Prime Minister of France (1895–1896)Bourgeois headed the French delegation to The Hague Peace Conferences in 1899 and 1907, where he promoted cooperation among nations. Member of the peace group of the French parliament. He was a member of the Permanent Court of Justice at the Hague from 1903. Bourgeois was among the initiators of the League of Nations and was appointed France's representative to the League in 1919, where he was elected president of the council. Bourgeois was an ardent spokesman for disarmament, international law and obligatory arbitration. Won the 1920 Nobel Peace Prize.Luigi Luzzatti
(1841–1927)1908, 1909Prime Minister of Italy (1910–1911)Luzzatti emphasized the importance of social reforms and cooperation to secure social and political peace. Promoted international law and economic cooperation.Franz Joseph I of Austria
(1830–1916)1908, 1913, 1914Emperor of the Austro–Hungarian Empire (1848–1916)Francis Joseph had been Emperor for 60 years. Auguste Beernaert
(1829–1912)1909Prime Minister of Belgium (1884–1894)Beernaert promoted international arbitration and disarmament. He was Belgium's representative at the Hague conferences in 1899 and 1907, where he advocated compulsory arbitration. Beernaert was very active in the work of the Inter–Parliamentary Union, and was president of its council in 1909. Shared the 1909 Nobel Peace Prize with Paul Henri d'Estournelles de Constant.Andrey Lyapchev
(1866–1933)191022nd Prime Minister of Bulgaria (1926–1931). -
Nominated the only time by Хр.П.Славейков.Milovan Milovanović
(1863–1912)191045th Prime Minister of Serbia (1911–1912)Nominated for his efforts to prevent the Serbian–Austrian conflict in 1909 from turning into war. Proponent of international law and arbitration.Sergei Yulyevich Witte
(1849–1915)1911, 19121st Prime Minister of Russia (1905–1906).Witte was the first constitutional prime minister of the Russian Empire 1905–06. Nominated by C.Brun only.Emperor Wilhelm II
(1859–1941)1911, 1917Emperor of Prussia (1888–1918) -William Howard Taft
(1857–1930)191327th President of the United States (1909–1913)Taft promoted international law and arbitration. He initiated arbitration treaties between the US and Great Britain and France, but despite his efforts these were not concluded. Advocated peace and cooperation during his presidency(1909–1913).Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk
(1850–1937)1913, 1914, 1915, 1921, 1923, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1939, 19371st President of Czechoslovakia (1918–1935)Masaryk promoted humanism, ethics, and pacifism. As a Czechoslovak nationalist he fought to defend the Slav peoples against Austrian–Hungarian imperialism. He successfully acted as mediator between Austria–Hungary and Serbia in 1912. During World War I Masaryk advocated democratic rights and human liberation. He was the chief founder and first president of Czechoslovakia.Heinrich Lammasch
(1853–1920)1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919()Last Minister–President of Austria (1918)Lammasch promoted international law and arbitration. He became associated with the Institute of International Law in 1887, and a member in 1891. He played an important role at international conferences and meetings and he was member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. Lammasch presided over the Court in the conflicts between the USA and Great Britain over the fishery in New Foundland (1909), and between the USA and Venezuela over the rights of the Orinoco Steamship Company (1910). He became a lifelong member of the Austrian First Chamber in 1899 and Hon. member of the Vienna Academic Peace Association. Member of the Central Organization for a Durable Peace (founded in 1915) and Hon. President of the Austrian peace association 'Para Pacem'. After 1916 Lammasch continued to produce works on peace, international law and arbitration, despite deteriorating health. In 1918, he presented a draft covenant for the League of Nations.Albert I of Belgium
(1875–1934)1915, 1917, 1918, 1919, 1920, 1922, 1923, 1927King of Belgium (1909–1934)Albert I was nominated for his national sacrifice in order to uphold the idea of international law after the outbreak of war in 1914.Alfonso XIII
(1886–1941)1917, 1933King of Spain (1886–1931) - Woodrow Wilson
(1856–1924)1918, 1919, 192028th President of the United States (1913–1921)Wilson advocated international law and arbitration. In January 1917 he had made an unsuccessful attempt to persuade the belligerents to end the war, calling for a 'peace without victory'. After the USA had entered the war, Wilson outlined his view on a post–war settlement through his 'Fourteen points'. These became the guiding principles for the Paris Peace Conference (1919–20), and included the establishment of the League of Nations. However, Wilson failed to obtain ratification of the Treaty of Versailles, and the USA did not join the League of Nations. Won the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize but was awarded the following year.Herbert Hoover
(1874–1964)1921, 1933, 1941, 194631st President of the United States (1929–1933)Hoover was the chief Allied relief administrator during World War I (1914–1919) and later chairman of the Commission for Relief in Belgium. He was appointed national food administrator to stimulate production and conserve supplies when the USA entered into the war.David Lloyd George
(1863–1945)1922Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1916–1922)-
Jointly nominated but Griffith died before the only chance to be rewardedArthur Griffith
(1871–1922)President of Dáil Éireann (1922)Warren Gamaliel Harding
(1865–1923)1922, 192329th President of the United States (1921–1923)President Harding had initiated the Washington Conference on Limitation of Armaments. The treaties on disarmament at sea adopted by the conference were later ratified by the US Senate.Francesco Saverio Nitti
(1868–1953)1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926Prime Minister of Italy (1919–1920)Nitti was nominated for the foreign policy he conducted while he was Prime Minister of Italy. He regarded Europe as one unit depending on the equality of each country. Nitti criticized the Versailles Treaty and the ongoing rearmement in the books Europa senza pace and Decandenza dell' Europa. He presided over the Conference of the Allied Forces in San Remo, where he advocated a policy of appeasement towards Austria and protested against the imperialistic policy of Lord Curzon. Nitti attempted to guide the American opinion through his articles in United Press of America and the nominators thought this was the reason why the US Senate in November 1922 was willing to discuss the questions of compensation and the Entente policy.Ramsay MacDonald
(1866–1937)1925, 1929, 1930, 1931Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1924–1924, 1929–1935)MacDonald joined the Labour Party in 1894 and he gradually became a well known political writer. Socialism was the subject of most of his books, but he did not encourage revolution. In 1911 he became parliamentary leader of the Labour Party, and in 1924 he became the first Labour prime minister. MacDonald presided over the negotiations on US Secretary of State Dawes' Plan for the payment of German war reparations 1924. He was also instrumental in the process that resulted in the Geneva Protocol on collective security, disarmament and compulsory arbitration. Aristide Briand
(1862–1932)1926, 1931, 1932Prime Minister of France (1909–1917, 1921–1922, 1925–1926, 1929)Briand was nominated for his plan to create a European Union. The plan was first presented in the League of Nations in 1929, and in 1930 the French government put forth a memorandum on the issue. The League then decided to establish a study commission on the subject with Briand as its chairman. Shared the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize. Gustav Stresemann
(1878–1929)1926Chancellor of Germany (1923)Stresemann was nominated for being largely responsible for restoring the international status of Germany after World War I, and for his contribution to the Locarno Pact in 1925. Advocate of reconciliation and arbitration. Luther became Minister of Finance under Gustav Stresemann in 1923, and he successfully stabilized the inflated national currency. He continued as Minister of Finance in the next government, and he participated in negotiating the Dawes Plan in 1924. Shared the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize.Hans Luther
(1879–1962)1926Chancellor of Germany (1925–1926)Luther became Minister of Finance under Gustav Stresemann in 1923, and he successfully stabilized the inflated national currency. He continued as Minister of Finance in the next government, and he participated in negotiating the Dawes Plan in 1924.Edvard Beneš
(1884–1948)1926, 1927, 1938, 1939, 1945, 1947, 19482nd and 4th President of Czechoslovakia (1935–1938; 1945–1948)Benes advocated peace, justice and international law in the League of Nations while serving as Czechoslovak Foreign Minister, and he continued to promote peace when he became president of Czechoslovakia.Giuseppe Motta
(1871–1940)1927, 1928, 1930, 1932, 1933, 1937, 1938President of the Swiss Confederation (1915, 1920, 1927, 1932, 1937)Motta was the chief Swiss delegate to the League of Nations from 1920. He became Honorary President of the first League assembly (1920) and President of the fifth assembly (1924). Protector of Swiss neutrality and advocate of international law and arbitration.Édouard Herriot
(1872–1957)1929, 1933Prime Minister of France (1924–1925, 1926, 1932)Herriot was the leader of the French Radical Party from 1919, and he was Prime Minister 1924–1925 and 1926. He was nominated for his contribution to the Geneva Protocol during the assemblies of the League of Nations 1924–1925. Proponent of disarmament, international law and arbitration.Carlos Ibáñez del Campo