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POLITICS: Obama (and Everyone Else) "Surprised" by Nobel

Thalif Deen*

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 9 2009 (IPS) - Friday's announcement that U.S. President Barack Obama had been awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize barely nine months into his presidency drew an outpouring of formal congratulations from around the world, amid scepticism and speculation over whether the prize would ultimately prove an asset or liability.

In a statement from Oslo, the committee explained its unexpected decision as recognition of Obama's "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples", in particular his outreach to the Arab world and efforts to end nuclear proliferation – clearly a tacit rebuke to the unilateral approach of his predecessor, George W. Bush.

But with few concrete accomplishments on either score to boast of – and as Obama considers further escalation of the Afghanistan war, with Arab-Israeli peace efforts floundering – many interpreted the decision as a purely political calculation.

"It is as if the prize committee had been persuaded to give the award on the future delivery of promises," noted Peter Beaumont, writing in the London Guardian.

Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu echoed that sentiment, but in gentler terms: "It is an award that speaks to the promise of President Obama's message of hope," he said.

In Washington, Obama himself made a brief appearance in the White House Rose Garden before noon, saying he was "both surprised and deeply humbled" by the Nobel Committee's decision.

"Let me be clear: I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations," he said.

Obama later announced that he would give the 1.4 million dollars in prize money to an as-yet-unnamed charity.

At U.N. headquarters in New York, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also credited Obama's achievement to causes the U.S. president is espousing, which are clearly on the U.N. agenda.

"President Obama embodies the new spirit of dialogue and engagement on the world's biggest problems: climate change, nuclear disarmament, and a wide range of peace and security challenges," Ban told reporters Friday.

He said that Obama's commitment to work through the United Nations – including a first by a U.S. president to chair a Security Council meeting on nuclear disarmament last month – "gives the world's people fresh hope and fresh prospects."

William D. Hartung, director of the New America Foundation's Arms and Security Initiative, thinks that Obama's initiative for a "world without nuclear weapons" was a major contributory factor in the Nobel Peace Prize.

"My first reaction was 'how can a guy who's only been in office for nine months win the Nobel Peace Prize?'" Hartung told IPS.

"But once I woke up and thought about it for a few minutes, I realised that the honour being bestowed on President Obama is well-deserved for one very good reason: his commitment to work for a world without nuclear weapons," he said.

Reaction from the Arab world was also largely positive. Speaking from Cairo, Arab League Secretary-General Esmet Abdel Meguid called the award "a positive move that would lead to more understanding and relations between the United States and other countries".

While most analysts in Washington said the prize would likely boost – if only modestly – Obama's foreign policy priorities, they were divided on its impact on his domestic political standing.

"It can't hurt," wrote Matthew Cooper, a political analyst for The Atlantic Magazine.

Cooper noted that it puts the "humiliating experience of lobbying for Chicago for the 2016 Olympics… in perspective", and should also give him more "political space to sell whatever he comes up with on Afghanistan" – a critical war-and-peace issue that the White House has been consumed with for the past two weeks.

Other analysts predicted that it could help the administration gain more support from its wavering NATO allies in Afghanistan and build support for stalled efforts to get Israeli-Palestinian peace talks going.

"The reality is that this Prize put some air back in the Obama Bubble – and this is good for the country and world as the challenges in the international system are enormous today," wrote Steve Clemons on his widely read "thewashingtonnote.com" blog.

But others said the Prize was likely to add fuel to the right-wing populist fire that animates much of the Republican Party at the moment.

"This fully exposes the illusion that is Barack Obama," the right-wing radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh wrote in an email to politico.com. "And with this 'award' the elites of the world are urging Obama, THE MAN OF PEACE, to not do the surge in Afghanistan, not take action against Iran and its nuclear program and to basically continue his intentions to emasculate the United States."

Obama is the third sitting U.S. president to win the prize after Woodrow Wilson received it in 1919 in recognition of his efforts in founding the League of Nations, and Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 for his role in ending the Russo-Japanese war.

He is the first sitting head of state to win in the very first year of his or her government.

Former President Jimmy Carter, who praised the committee's decision Friday as "a bold statement of international support for his vision and commitment", won it in 2002 for efforts to promote peace, human rights, and economic development after leaving the presidency in 1981.

Other Nobel peace laureates were not as sanguine. Mairead Maguire, who won the prize in l976, said in a statement Friday that she was "very disappointed" with the decision.

"They say this is for [Obama's] extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples, and yet he continues the policy of militarism and occupation of Afghanistan, instead of dialogue and negotiations with all parties to the conflict," she said.

"Giving this award to the leader of the most militarised country in the world, which has taken the human family against its will to war, will be rightly seen by many people around the world as a reward for his country's aggression and domination," she said.

In its controversial decision, the committee itself has drawn nearly as much scrutiny as Obama. At a news conference Friday, its chair, Thorbjorn Jagland, essentially confirmed speculation that the prize was intended to boost Obama's international standing and agenda.

"The committee wants to not only endorse but contribute to enhancing that kind of international policy and attitude which [Obama] stands for," he said. "We are hoping this may contribute a little bit for what he is trying to do."

*With additional reporting by Jim Lobe in Washington.