Last week, United States President Barack Obama was selected as the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, CBC News reported Oct. 9.
The Nobel committee awarded the prize to recognize the President’s “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between people.” Particular examples cited include Obama’s work to abolish nuclear weapons and improve relations with the Muslim world.
By the prize’s Feb. 1, 2008 nomination deadline, Obama would have been in office for two weeks.
He accepted the award with humility as a “call to action,” and plans to donate the $1.4-million prize to charity.
Awarding the prize to Obama was an important symbolic gesture to recognize his positive goals for peace. The President accepted the announcement nobly, as it would have been a controversial move to decline the award.
But given Obama’s short term in office so far, it’s premature to award a Nobel Prize to a man who hasn’t yet achieved tangible results for peace, though they may be on the horizon.
Obama has made pledges with great potential, such as commitment to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. But having a vision isn’t so difficult as executing its success.
When it comes to the Nobel Peace Prize, results should be rewarded, and no less. Obama is more popular than former President George W. Bush, but he doesn’t merit a major peace prize for merely presenting a more conciliatory tone. Elections are the arena for this recognition, and Obama has already won.
It would have been equally effective for the Nobel committee to issue a statement in praise of Obama’s efforts while recognizing a lesser-known peace worker with the prize. For an award designed to bring the efforts of valuable peacemakers into the limelight, it’s counterintuitive to give the prize to someone as present in the public eye as Obama.
For a president elected to make strides toward peace, bestowing additional honours for working towards this expectation seems redundant.
It’s unfortunate Obama will now face the challenge of having all he does in his presidency held up to the standard of what’s Nobel-worthy. Already staggering under the weight of sky-high expectations to live up to his branding, he faces a trying road ahead.
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