The Nobel Peace Prize Committee has done something it hasn’t done in the 114-year history of the honor – demote the board chairman.  The unprecedented move apparently reflects concerns about recent prizes as well as a shift to the right in the government of Norway, which controls the awards.

The committee gave no reason for demoted 64-year old Thorbjoern Jagland, a former Prime Minister of Norway, after six years at the helm.  He’ll remain on the committee, and is being replaced at the top by deputy head Kaci Kullmann Five, a former conservative party leader.

“There was broad agreement within the committee that Thorbjoern Jagland was a good chair for six years,” Kullman Five told reporters.

Jagland’s tenure had been marked by controversy – such as the 2009 decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to US President Barack Obama while the US was still waging two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Since then, Mr. Obama has signed off on numerous predator drone strikes across the Islamic world that have killed terrorists along with any family members or civilians that happened to be too close at the time of impact. 

In 2010, the prize went to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiabo, which prompted Beijing to freeze diplomatic ties with Oslo.  Kullman Five denies pressure from China influenced the decision to demote Jagland.

Jagland became the public face of the 2012 decision to award the Nobel to the European Union for its commitment to “peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights”, despite the crippling effect the EU’s unpopular austerity policies were having in Greece, Iceland, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, France, and Spain. 

In 2013, the Conservatives won a majority in Norway’s parliament, and therefore control of appointing members to the Nobel Committee.