THIS just in: US President Barack Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples.”
There are already howls of outrage because Obama’s country is embroiled in two major wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but I think he deserves to win.
He ran for president on a very brave ticket that was highly critical of George W Bush’s military engagement in Iraq and he has begun the process of extracting the US from that war.
Add to that the depolarisation of the global political environment that he has brought about by engaging with the world rather than threatening it and you can’t argue that he hasn’t made the largest contribution to peace over the last year.

(I took the picture to the left in Accra, Ghana , this week. Obama is a national hero in that African country, evidence of the sea-change in attitudes to the US since he took office.)

Here’s the statement issued by the US Embassy in SA on the award:
U.S. President Barack Obama Awarded 2009 Nobel Peace
United States President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today in recognition of his work to advance international diplomacy. President Obama is the fourth American president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, joining presidents Jimmy Carter, Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt.
Obama was praised by the Nobel Committee for “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
President Obama has emphasized the importance of the United States working for peace as a member of the global community. In his inaugural speech in January of this year, President Obama called for a “new era of responsibility.” Watched by millions around the world, he said, “What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition on the part of every American that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world; duties that we do not grudgingly accept, but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.”
The Nobel Prize is an international award administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. The Prizes have been awarded since 1901 for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace. This year’s peace prize nominees included 172 people and 33 organizations, the highest number of nominations ever. The committee does not release the names of the nominees.
In honoring President Obama, the Nobel Committee stated: “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.”
“We are awarding Obama for what he has done,” the Nobel Committee said. “Many other people and leaders and nations have to respond in a positive way” to President Obama’s diplomacy.
The Committee highlighted President Obama’s work on nuclear disarmament, adding that “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.

Related posts:

1. Tutu congratulates Obama on Nobel Prize – full text
2. Martti Ahtisaari wins Nobel Peace Prize
3. Give Al Gore the Nobel Prize!
4. Nelson Mandela’s letter to Barack Obama on his victory
5. Barack Obama’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech – full text