I view Obama’s receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize as a recognition that the power of ideas is equally important if we are going to realize the potential of “activity” or “work” towards peace. Barack Obama is the first American president to embrace the idea that the U.S. is a part of the international community, and not just a force (for good or for bad) within it.
I find the argument that “it is too early” for him to be awarded this honor unconvincing. Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize simply for promoting and starting the idea of a peace movement in Northern Ireland. Their organization began in August 1976 and they were awarded the Nobel in 1977. They were 32 and 33 years old, respectively. The Troubles were still raging even as they received their prizes. But these women were, in my view rightly, awarded this prize for the very idea that there could be peace and that violence was not the answer to the political struggles of Northern Irish Catholics.
There are some who were already skeptical of this president and see this as just another way of “enshrining” him when “he hasn’t done anything”. First, I don’t think many of us knew about his work on nuclear proliferation before this (I know I didn’t know much myself). And it appears that few people know anything about it even now.
But more important, I’m not convinced that receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize does anything to enshrine anyone. Obama is already enshrined as the first black president in the U.S. And consider the fact that Yassar Arafat and Henry Kissinger also were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Public figures will, in the end, be remembered for the totality of their contribution to the betterment (or worsening) of the human condition.
