Without waiting for the Norwegian Nobel Committee to ask me, I have gone ahead and formally nominated someone for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize this December in Oslo. The award, according to the rules, should go to the person who “shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations.” I admit that my nominee, who is a bit of a wing nut, will be seen as a long shot. But once you get past that, I am sure you’ll agree that he’s a slam dunk.

My nominee is a pudgy fellow, a tad on the slow side, with an inferiority complex and obsession about American basketball, particularly with former superstar Michael Jordan. According to his friends, my nominee “likes to drink and party all night,” once appeared as a student in the musical Grease and is fond of threatening to “annihilate” the United States in a nuclear war. In this crazy world, that surely makes Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, a natural Nobel Peace Prize winner, doesn’t it?

No, perhaps not — but there is something else that might. Although his bellicose threats may have put all of Asia and much of the world on edge, it has also apparently brought together the world’s two most important rivals, China and the United States. And that is worthy of a prize.

If peace and stability in the 21st century is ever to be achieved and sustained, the most important relationship on the planet will be between China and the United States. By most measurements, the U.S. is still the world’s No. 1, but that will gradually change. Already, China has surpassed the U.S. to become the world’s biggest trading nation. U.S. intelligence sources predict that the Chinese economy will overtake the U.S. at some point between 2022 and 2030. This galactic shift will likely shape and define the remaining century.

With this new reality buried deep in the background, the new American Secretary of State, John Kerry, travelled to Beijing last weekend on a crucial trip that may have an impact on President Barack Obama’s ultimate legacy. Kerry was seeking China’s assistance to bring its neighbour and ally, North Korea, back under control. This was not like “Nixon goes to China” in 1972, where the power equation was dramatically different. But if Kerry did not quite come to China as a supplicant, with cap in hand, the Americans clearly needed China’s help and, by all accounts, they got it.

That was a very encouraging development. How this delicate and sometimes explosive relationship evolves will likely be the difference in future years between war and peace. Until recently, relations between the world’s two most important superpowers have been ragged and fractious. The Americans have been critical of China’s trade policies and suspicious of its territorial ambitions. From China’s perspective, nuclear anarchy within North Korea only encourages the U.S. to increase its military presence in Asia.

After meeting with Chinese leaders, Kerry said the two countries were committed to finding a peaceful way of creating a “nuclear-free” Korean peninsula. Earlier this month, China’s new president Xi Jinping issued a rare rebuke of North Korea: “No one should be allowed to throw a region, or even the whole world, into chaos for selfish gain.” After his meeting with Kerry, the Chinese president said the U.S.-China relationship was “at a new historical stage and has got off to a good start.”

It will be fascinating to see in what direction this goes. Later this month, the most important generals in both the U.S. and China will meet to see whether they can navigate together around the many dangerous minefields that confront them.

John Garnaut, the respected China correspondent for Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald, reports that the People’s Liberation Army is showing rare signs of friendliness toward the U.S.: “(Both countries) are locked in a dangerous rivalry that may go on for decades. But at least the generals are talking and searching for ways to prevent accidents spiralling out of control.”

That’s good. But I wonder in which living room cabinet will Kim Jong-un put his new prize?

Tony Burman, former head of Al Jazeera English and CBC News, teaches journalism at Ryerson University. tony.burman@gmail.com

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Read more about: