Breaking: President Barack Obama Wins the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize
Congratulations on the honor, President Obama!
UPDATED TO ADD:
From the Nobel Prize website's official press release:
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. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.
We'll have more on the international and domestic response to the world's most significant humanitarian award to President Obama as it develops.
For now, please take a look at then-Senator Obama's signal 2007 piece in Foreign Affairs, "Renewing American Leadership," (free but registration required) which begins with the subheading, "Common Security for Our Common Humanity." Surely this articulation of his vision of peace in a multilateral, nuclear weapons-free world prior to assuming the office of President of the United States--published during the height of the Bush administration's "imperial presidency" and pursuit of unilateral, pre-emptive war in Iraq--was a key piece of evidence the Nobel committee considered. His linking of global climate crisis to national and international security, and recent handling of the news that Iran has the facilities for making nuclear weapons with a call for G20 allies to join the US in exerting diplomatic pressure on Iran to dismantle same, was also likely a factor in the Nobel committee's decision.
From the Huffington Post's brief summary of the G20 speech:
Obama called on fellow leaders to help bring about a nuclear weapons-free world, to increase security from terrorists and promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians, to tackle climate change and to create more economic opportunity.
He said that Iran and North Korea "must be held accountable" if they continue to put their pursuit of nuclear weapons ahead of international security.
"The world must stand together to demonstrate that international law is not an empty promise and that treaties will be enforced."
It's my hope that with the award of this tremendous honor, President Obama can complete the implementation of his vision of global peace and affirm the place of America in becoming an agent of it even as our military is currently deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. May we complete our mission there soon and return our troops safely home to the United States as quickly as is prudent.
Cynematic blogs at P i l l o w b o o k. What she's doing up at this hour she has no idea.
PS President Obama? I think a wonderful thing to do that's in keeping with your beliefs and values would be to use the Nobel prize winnings to fund a scholarship open to young people from strife-torn countries around the world, so they can come to America and study peace and conflict resolution with their young American counterparts. Just think, youth from Rwanda, the Sudan, the middle east, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and North Korea (yes I'm dreaming, but dream big, right?) could all come here to contribute what they know about the importance of peace and some steps we can all take to get there. (And more funding for the Fulbrights so more of our young people can learn overseas.)
Had we the moral courage then, we might have done this after 9/11. It's still not too late.
I think the Nobel Prize is an honor for the President, he was very gracious about accepting it.
Posted by: Lisa Stone | October 11, 2009 at 12:37 PM