Thanks to Nobel Committee in the next few days the world will talk about Barack Obama and why he won the Peace Nobel Prize. The official explanation was: “The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples.”
In the rest of the official announcement we can find same other arguments for Obama like:
- 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
- Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving international conflicts
- The vision of a world free from nuclear arms
So the question that world is asking today is – ok all of this is nice, but is it enough to get the prize? Until I will get to my opinion in this field, I want to open the new topic – how does it happen that Obama got a nomination. There is a very limited group of people who can submit the nomination to Oslo. Only presidents of the countries, parliaments and I guess prime ministers and do it. It mean that only the country authorities can propose someone for nomination. I am so curious which country nominated Barack Obama? For sure it was not United States of America…
Barack Obama is a very good diplomat, and actually even during the elections there was a big hope that he will positively influence the climate of the international community. Right now I have no idea what is he doing with domestic policy, but I appreciate his foreign policy a lot. For me the most important action of Barack Obama was to cancel building elements of the missile defence system in Poland. It shows that he prefers the way of dialogue not armament. As well this action is a very important step in the relation with Russia and Iran, having in mind that those countries were extremely against it.
As well Obama is trying to be a part of the Middle East peace process. He express it during his first days of the presidency, when the first person he officially called was the prime minister of Palestine. Then we have his visits in the Middle East with the famous speech in Cairo. Actually it was not famous in Europe, not at all, but I spent the whole summer in Egypt and I was talking to many strangers of the street, and same friends, different people in general. The topic of Obama’s speech in Cairo was coming back very often, and always with a big hopes.
Let’s be honest. Right now Obama is the most influential person in the only world superpower, what mean in the whole world. And we all know that actions of the US president are important. Looking backward of the last 8 years of the Bush presidency we can see the difference between them, how much the world depends on their actions, words and even small gestures! Obama is taking his chances, is making a small steps in the direction to peace. Yes he is doing nothing special, noting that isn’t part of his everyday “job description”, but he is doing it in a right way – the way of dialogue. So maybe Obama doesn’t deserve this prize, but the world does.
For me this Nobel Prize has to meanings – first it is antiBush prize, that shows the world that we didn’t like the politics of Bush and his administration, and that is example for the world leaders what not to do. Secondly, it is prize for the world and the future. It is almost like with Al Gore and climate change, the prize was awarded to show the world the direction, to appreciate the small things that make a real change, to underline same good practices in the international community that are implemented right now. This is not a prize for Barack Obama, it is a prize for dialogue and mutual understanding as a tool for achieving peace.
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