This week's curious stories will continue last week's theme of Nobel Prizes - this time looking at the Nobel Prize for Peace (which was awarded recently to the UN World Food Programme).
However, rather than dwelling on the achievements of past recipients, this edition will attempt to make the case for next year's potential winners: the Swiss Air Force, and the Soviet Union (posthumously*, of course):
The Swiss Air Force - In 2014, the Swiss Air Force came tantalizingly close to answering the Pacifist question of "suppose they gave a war and nobody came". Of course, this anti-war experiment was not caused by a hippie-take-over but rather by the acute sense that a healthy work-life-balance should also extend to members of the armed forces. The incident in question was triggered by a distress call from Ethiopian Airlines Flight 702 which had just been hijacked by its co-pilot and was approaching Geneva airport. However, at 6:00am in the morning, the call was received outside of the air force's office hours. Their spokesman later added that Switzerland cannot intervene "because its airbases are closed at night and on the weekend" - a fact other countries would have probably treated a little less openly. The call of duty was ultimately answered by French and Italian fighter jets who escorted the plane to land safely. (Link)
Swiss airforce F-15
The Soviet Union - In the late 1980s, the Cold War witnessed one of its most unusual disarmament agreements. Rather than trading off the number of deployed ballistic missiles or nuclear warheads, this particular deal saw a lot of sugary soda traded for a mid-sized navy. It all started with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev allegedly developing a taste for Pepsi cola during a meeting with then VP Richard Nixon. Years later, the Soviet Union started importing Pepsi cola on a large scale under one of the biggest barter agreements of the 20th century - American Pepsi products for Russian vodka. However, once vodka was no longer enough to cover the tab, the Soviet Union threw some hardware into the bargain (specifically 17 submarines, a cruiser, a frigate, and a destroyer). This bought another 3$bn worth of Pepsi products and briefly gave the company control of the 6th biggest navy in the world. Reading the balance sheet that year must have been a sight to behold (until the fleet was sold for scrap to Sweden). (Link)
Soviet submarine
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*The Nobel Prize cannot be awarded posthumously "unless death has occurred after the announcement of the Nobel Prize" (Link). This author does not have an informed opinion on whether states can die in a sense that would satisfy the statutes of the Nobel Prize (but having an informed opinion can seem sometimes somewhat antiquated these days)
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