NATO receives Westphalian Peace Prize in Münster as Friedrich Merz delivers keynote

Award ceremony in Münster

NATO is scheduled to receive the 2026 International Prize of the Peace of Westphalia on Thursday during a ceremony at the Town Hall in Münster. The 100,000-euro award is presented every two years by the Economic Society for Westphalia and Lippe (WWL) to recognize contributions to European stability. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte will accept the distinction on behalf of the alliance. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will deliver the official laudation and a policy keynote address starting at 16:00. The award commemorates the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, concluded in Münster and Osnabrück to end the Thirty Years' War and establish the principle of equal, sovereign states. Alongside the main award, the organizers selected the Dortmund-based church foundation socioMovens as the recipient of the 50,000-euro Youth Prize for social cohesion projects in Central and Eastern Europe.

Base inspection and bilateral meetings

Before the Town Hall ceremony, Chancellor Merz travels to the 1st German-Netherlands Corps stationed in Münster at midday. Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte will accompany the Chancellor throughout the military base visit. The three leaders will receive an operational situation briefing and hold discussions directly with deployed service personnel. A joint press conference is scheduled to take place at the military headquarters at 13:40. Following the media briefing, Merz will conduct bilateral talks with Rutte and Jetten to discuss foreign and security policy challenges confronting the alliance.

Debate over honoring a military alliance

The decision to present a peace award to a military alliance drew controversy following its mid-September announcement. Reinhard Zinkann, chairman of the WWL and leader of the eleven-member selection jury, acknowledged the diverse public reactions but stated that deterrence and peace are complementary rather than conflicting concepts.

We are honoring NATO because credible security is an essential prerequisite for peace.

Herfried Münkler, emeritus professor of political science at Humboldt University in Berlin, supported the jury's decision by referencing the background of the 1648 treaties. Münkler noted that the 1648 agreement in Westphalia brought military forces under sovereign state control following decades of atrocities against civilian populations during a territorial conflict across European soil.

The Westphalian Peace of 1648 was above all a containment of war, it is obvious to award a military alliance whose goal is deterrence.

Criticisms and planned demonstrations

Peace groups have voiced disagreement with the award, arguing that recognizing a military organization runs counter to the tradition of the Westphalian peace treaties. The Münster Peace Forum announced plans for a demonstration on Münster's Domplatz on Friday to protest the selection. The Catholic peace movement Pax Christi responded with public satire regarding the alliance's military scale.

We congratulate the world's largest peace movement with 3.5 million members ready to defend and a budget of 1.5 trillion dollars.

Past honorees of the Westphalian Peace Prize span international politics and culture, including Václav Havel, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Daniel Barenboim, and Margot Friedländer.