Nobel Peace Laureate Barack Obama

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Laureate Barack Obama

Less than nine months into his presidency, President Barack Obama makes history again. On Friday he was unanimously awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Laureate.

President Obama now joins an elite team of outstanding winners including Wangari Maathai (2004) of Kenya, Former President Nelson Mandela (1993) of South Africa, Bishop Desmond Tutu (1964) of South Africa, and Martin Luther King (1964) of the United States of America.

According to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, their decision on awarding President Obama the the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 was based on his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. According to the Committee, they had attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee also added:

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. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama’s initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

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."

The Black Chairman of the Republican Party, Michael Steele, immediately issued a statement Friday saying, "The real question Americans are asking is, What has President Obama actually accomplished?" Mr. Steele, who took over the reigns of the party earlier this year, said he thought it was "unfortunate that the president’s star power has outshined tireless advocates who have made real achievements working towards peace and human rights." Mr Steele also said he doesn’t think Obama will be "receiving any awards from Americans for job creation, fiscal responsibility, or backing up rhetoric with concrete action."

The Norwegian Nobel Committee countered that it was trying "to promote what he stands for and the positive processes that have started now." It lauded the change in global mood wrought by Obama’s calls for peace and cooperation, and praised his pledges to reduce the world stock of nuclear arms, ease American conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthen the U.S. role in combating climate change. "He got the prize because he has been able to change the international climate," Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said. "Some people say, and I understand it, isn’t it premature? Too early? Well, I’d say then that it could be too late to respond three years from now. It is now that we have the opportunity to respond — all of us."

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