Friday, October 09, 2009

President Obama wins the Nobel Peace Price for... what exactly?

I am happy that the President has won a Nobel Prize. It is a major honor for any American to win, and I hope that people see it that way. At the same time, I admit to being confused. He has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize yet has accomplished no major diplomatic achievement that I can see. There is no Mideast Peace Agreement, we are still at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is no sense that he has decreased global terrorism - or that it has simply decreased during his tenure, and it does not appear that the "Great Recession" has been alleviated which one could argue would decrease international tensions. The only explanation in the articles I am reading is really a vague allusion.

The committee said it attached special importance to Obama's vision of, and work for, a world without nuclear weapons.

"Obama has as president created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play," the committee said.
This seems awfully nebulous to me. Aren't Nobel Prizes supposed to recognize great achievements done by great men? President Obama may be judged as a "great man" someday, but it seems too early in his tenure to be sure now. It seems more like either (1) they had no other contenders, or (2) the Committee has decided the prize is simply a political tool to further their own agenda without regard to its intended use.

2 comments:

Christina Dunigan said...

And he was 2 weeks into his Presidency when the deadline for nominations was up.

What this means is that his puppetmasters are operating on an international level. This isn't just something some domestic America-haters cooked up.

BH said...

I have mixed feeling about this... so... Congrats Obama.