President Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize: Surprize Win

U.S. President Barack Obama was announce the winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. The announcement was made Friday morning, by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, in Oslo. Barack Obama was chosen out of 205 Nobel Peace Prize candidates, the highest amount of nominees ever. This news is surprising to most.

President Barack Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize: Why It's Surprising
New Nobel Laurette Obama has only been President for less than nine months, which is not a lot of time to effect much change. Even more surprising, is that Obama took office only two weeks before the nomination deadline. There were not any leaks that President Obama was even on the short list to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

The biggest reason President Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize is surprising, is that Obama is the Commander in Chief of a nation actively involved in two wars. The U.S. military is currently engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan. Also, Obama has yet to achieve a major success in foreign policy.

President Barack Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize: Reasons Obama Won
CNN reports that the Norwegian Nobel Committee lauded Obama for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

President Obama has been changing the tone of U.S. international diplomacy. Obama has been willing to sit down and have dialog with nations around the world. He gave a speech in Cairo, on June 4, reaching out to the Muslim world. A copy of this speech can be found on the NY Times website. The speech emphasizes a new respectful beginning between the United States and Muslims.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee also cited that President Obama has also been actively involved in nuclear arms reduction, towards a nuclear free world. They also put great stock in the hope that President Obama has installed in the world.

President Barack Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize: Should He Have Won?
While President Obama may not have racked up an impressive roster of foreign policy coups, the five voting members of Norwegian Nobel Committee unanimously voted him the winner. They definitely achieved their goal of being more daring, awarding the prize more on promise, than achievement.

Like the American people, the Nobel Committee was moved by President Obama's rhetoric of change and promise. Is hope a good reason to award the Nobel Peace Prize? Time will tell. Which is a nice way of saying probably not. President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize is a nice gesture of faith, but might have been more appropriate after having had time to achieve monumental, or even actual, change.

There is also the possibility that President Obama will be the driving force behind peaceful international diplomacy and nuclear arms reduction. Then the Norwegian Nobel Committee will be recognized for their groundbreaking gesture of putting faith in such a powerful thing as hope.

President Barack Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize: Past U.S. President Winners
President Obama is the first U.S. President to win the Nobel Peace Prize, during a first term. Two other U.S. Presidents received the award, while in office. Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize, after helping achieve peace in the Russo-Japanese war. Woodrow Wilson won, for his part in the creation of the League of Nations.

Former President Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize, in 2002, years after leaving office. He was honored for his achievements with Habitat for Humanity and monitoring world-wide elections.

Sources:
www.cnn.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/us/politics/04obama.text.html