The Norwegian Nobel Prize 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. The committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of peace and work for a world without nuclear weapons. 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. The Nobel Committee, it seems, had the audacity to hope that he’ll eventually produce a record worthy of its prize.

Political analysts continuously highlight Obama’s preference for dialogue and negotiations as the best instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The same pro-Obama analysts state that he captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future by promising to reach out and listen to nations and groups who have felt unfairly targeted and disillusioned in the past years by the Bush Administration. In Cairo he asked for a new era of partnership between the US and Muslim nations, and in Prague he called for a nuclear free world. Ahmed El Meslemany, a senior political analyst at Al Ahram, Egypt’s oldest daily newspaper also commented that Obama enjoys mass appeal not merely because he is the first African-American president but also because he is viewed as a global citizen, and therefore the world’s president. The pro-Obama analysts also stated that Obama has been in office for too short a time to be judged on his actions, but he has put the world in the right direction through his diplomatic efforts and provided hope. That in itself is an achievement!

On the other hand critics of President Obama have said that the award is premature and complained that the new US President has so far done nothing more than make a few inspirational speeches. The prize, they say, should not be for effort but for results. Some critics have even said that he has merely got the award just for not being George W. Bush. Not being George Bush was a good start, because Bush represented an arrogant style of American foreign policy that resulted in warfare.

In my view the prize seems to be more for Obama’s promise than for his performance. The Nobel Peace Prize appeared to be a slap in the face for President George W. Bush whose presidency divided the world into allies and axis, good and evil as it prepared to wage perpetual war on the Muslim world. In addition to this, President Obama has promised that he would end the Iraq war, but he has been slow to withdraw the American troops and the real end of the US military presence there won’t come until at least 2012. Diplomatic efforts need to be pursued in Afghanistan to bring an end to this seemingly endless and unwinnable war that has resulted in the loss of thousands of lives and the forced migration of millions of Afghans inside and outside Afghanistan.

The US President had also promised to close the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, a difficult task that now seems headed to miss the January 2010 deadline. Mr Obama has pushed for new efforts for peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, but he has received little cooperation from Israel on the question of illegal settlements, and in the meantime Israel still continues to oppress the Palestinian people.

The Bush administration’s policy of failures in Iraq and elsewhere in the region has greatly diminished American credibility in the Arab world. During the eight years of the Bush administration it boasted about the need to maintain full control over the planet; it disregarded treaties, scorned the UN and refused to talk to anybody who did not agree with them.

To repair the damage caused by his predecessor President Obama has promised to reach out and listen to nations traditionally in adversarial relationships with the United States and, despite the fact that Obama inherited and is still running two wars in the Muslim world – in Iraq and Afghanistan, one can see the Nobel Peace Prize as a form of encouragement to Obama to continue his diplomatic efforts to achieve peace, rid the world of nuclear weapons and reach agreement on climate change.

Moustafa Megawer

QAWRA