From Scientific American website, http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=no-peace-for-science-international-2008-10-10L

Martti Ahtisaari takes the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize “for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts.”

A former President of Finland, Ahtissari mediated conflicts ranging from apartheid South Africa’s occupation of Namibia in the 1980s to Kosovo in the 2000s and founded the Crisis Management Initiative in an effort to promote peaceful conflict resolution.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee—who determine the peace prize, unlike all the other prizes awarded in Stockholm—particularly cited him for his role as an “outstanding international mediator.”