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U.S. President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize today, in part for leading the United States to play "a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting," according to the official announcement by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The Committee also cited Obama's "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples" and "attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons."
While world leaders and former Nobel Peace Prize laureates congratulated Obama, many other observers expressed surprise or downright disapproval at the Nobel Committee's decision to honor Obama for what they see as his ambitions rather than his achievements.
Writing for The Huffington Post, Screenwriter Michael Russnow, an avowed Obama supporter, said, "I believe it is enormously premature for Obama to be getting this great tribute, which to a certain extent cheapens the prior recipients and the work all of them performed over so many years." And he adds, "Obama's designation is akin to giving an Oscar to a young director for films we hope that he or she will produce or for a first-time published author getting a Pulitzer for a book he is destined to write some day."
Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica, like many other environmental leaders, issued a statement congratulating the president, but he added: "We have concerns . . . that the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded President Obama this award on the basis of expectations that have not yet been met. While President Obama has pledged to solve climate change at the international level it is important to note the United States is still playing a counter-productive role in the ongoing climate negotiations. At this moment U.S. negotiators are in Bangkok attempting to undermine existing agreements and shirk wealthy nations' responsibility to lead the way in solving the climate crisis."
Critics of the decision fault the Nobel Committee, not Obama, and generally express their hope that receiving the Nobel Peace Prize will inspire the president to deliver on the ambitious agenda for change that he outlined throughout his campaign and has been working on during his first months in office.
But not everyone disagrees with the Nobel Committee's decision. Joseph Romm, the editor of Climate Progress and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, had a different take on Obama's Nobel Prize in a piece he wrote for Grist.org:
"While some may argue that this award is premature, I disagree. This is a clear statement by the Nobel Committee not merely of the importance of U.S. multilateralism to genuine progress toward global peace, but also of their understanding that climate change has become a critical international issue.
"Unrestricted emissions of GHGs represent perhaps the gravest, preventable threat to future world peace--a growing source of future strife, refugees, conflict, and wars. Al Gore and the IPCC won in 2007 "for their work to alert the world to the threat of global warming." Alerting the world was and is vital. Taking action is even more crucial.
"Obama and his international negotiating team led by Secretary of State Clinton have helped create the first genuine chance that the entire world will come together and agree to sharply diverge from the catastrophic business-as-usual greenhouse gas emissions path. This award simultaneously acknowledges what they have achieved and pushes them and the world toward delivering on Obama's promise. It is well deserved."
As though anticipating the furor their choice would create, the members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee eloquently explained their decision to award the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama in the final two paragraphs of their official announcement:
"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.
"For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that 'Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.'"
My Take on the Issue
While I applaud the Nobel Committee's desire to endorse the new course Obama is trying to chart for the United States and the world, and while I agree that he is a charismatic leader who just may be able to pull it off, I do think the Committee was premature in awarding Obama the Nobel Peace Prize before he had a chance to fulfill his early promise.
I don't mean to take anything away from Obama--his vision has helped to ignite a sense of global optimism that could lead to world-changing initiatives--but world leadership is part of his job description, and his vision is one of the reasons he was elected by the American people and embraced by the global community.
Flimmaker Woody Allen said, "Eighty percent of success is showing up." While that may be true for actors or comedians--and quite possibly for most of the rest of us--we tend to expect more from U.S. presidents and Nobel laureates. There is no question that President Obama has shown up; he has assumed the highest office in the United States and claimed his place on the world stage. Now, let's see what he can do.
Also Read:
- Obama's Nobel: But Has He Done Anything Yet? -- About.com: Middle East Issues
- Did Nobel Committee Fear Obama's Premature Death? -- About.com: US Liberal Politics
- Obama's Highly Questionable Nobel Peace Prize -- About.com: US Conservative Politics
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