'Humbled’ Obama wins award in shock decision
Nobel observers were shocked by the unexpected choice so early in the Obama presidency.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama woke up to the news a little before 6am. The Norwegian Nobel Committee decided not to inform Obama before the announcement because it didn’t want to wake him up, committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said.
“Waking up a president in the middle of the night, this isn’t really something you do,” Jagland said.
The Nobel Committee lauded the change in global mood wrought by Obama’s calls for peace and co-operation but recognised initiatives that have yet to bear fruit: reducing the world stock of nuclear arms, easing American conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthening the US role in combating climate change.
“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,” Jagland said.
Obama’s election and foreign policy moves caused a dramatic improvement in the image of the US around the world. A 25-nation poll of 27,000 people released in July by the Pew Global Attitudes Project found double-digit boosts to the percentage of people viewing the US favourably in countries around the world.
Still, the US remains at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US Congress has yet to pass a law reducing carbon emissions and there has been little significant reduction in global nuclear stockpiles since Obama took office.
“So soon? Too early. He has no contribution so far. He is still at an early stage. He is only beginning to act,” said former Polish president Lech Walesa, a 1983 Nobel Peace laureate.
“This is probably an encouragement for him to act. Let’s see if he perseveres. Let’s give him time to act,” Walesa said.
The award appeared to be a slap at Bush from a committee that harshly criticised Obama’s predecessor for his largely unilateral military action. The Nobel committee praised Obama’s creation of “a new climate in international politics” and said he had returned multilateral diplomacy and institutions like the UN to the centre of the world stage.
“You have to remember that the world has been in a pretty dangerous phase,” Jagland said. “And anybody who can contribute to getting the world out of this situation deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.”
Unlike the other Nobel Prizes, which are awarded by Swedish institutions, the peace prize is given out by a five-member committee elected by the Norwegian Parliament. Like the Parliament, the committee has a leftist slant, with three members elected by left-of-centre parties. Jagland said the decision to honour Obama was unanimous.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, who won the prize in 1984, said Obama’s award shows great things are expected from him in coming years.
“It’s an award coming near the beginning of the first term of office of a relatively young president that anticipates an even greater contribution towards making our world a safer place for all,” Tutu said. “It is an award that speaks to the promise of President Obama’s message of hope.”
Speculation had focused on a variety of candidates besides Obama: Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, a Colombian senator, a Chinese dissident and an Afghan woman’s rights activist, among others. The Nobel committee received a record 205 nominations for this year’s prize.
“The exciting and important thing about this prize is that it’s given to someone... who has the power to contribute to peace,” said Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said.
Obama is the third sitting US president to win the award: President Theodore Roosevelt won in 1906 and President Woodrow Wilson was awarded the prize in 1919.
Obama was to meet with his top advisers on the Afghan war later last night to consider a request by Gen Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan, to send as many as 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan as the US war there enters its ninth year.
Obama ordered 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan earlier this year and has continued the use of unmanned drones for attacks on militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a strategy devised by the Bush administration. The attacks often kill or injure civilians living in the area.
In July talks, Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed their negotiators would work out a new limit on delivery vehicles for nuclear warheads of between 500 and 1,100. They also agreed that warhead limits would be reduced from the range of 1,700-2,200 to 1,500.
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