Do We Deserve that Peace Prize?
“We’re a peaceful nation.”
George Bush
Big news. The Norwegian Nobel Committee awards this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to President O. He received it for “extraordinary efforts” and “vision.” The announcement sounds more like a coming out gig than it does for an accomplished diplomat or for someone who has put together the plan that decreased nuclear weapons on the planet.
I will get a charge out of seeing this President sporting a tuxedo and rocking the gold – he’s a role model to many young people. How wonderful that an acknowledgement of peace be a symbol for so many people. I am sure he will throw down in his acceptance speech and I’ll burn a copy or two to share and for inspiration. Will this inspiration make us better? Has it made us better?
If the President picks up this prize, does that mean we all get a share? If so, is it just too early? It’s great that on the world court, we’ve got game, but are we just talking without being able to bring it? In the last year have we really done the job to make this a more peaceful world?
No peace without compassion. No peace without us getting together. As an nod to the Nobel Committee’s announcement, I accept our award by promising to do better on the peace front with a focus on how compassion in my life might be the idea that helps to move the world. I’m looking to get together and talk about compassion:
Congratulations to us and thanks President Obama for bringing the Nobel home.
Peace
One comment
I think we have to look at the history of the Nobel Peace Prizes awarded to U.S. presidents. Roosevelt and Carter are on the list, but I think the key example when we’re thinking of Obama is Woodrow Wilson. Woodrow Wilson’s dream was to create international, multilateral diplomacy during World War I, obviously one of the bloodiest wars in our history. He campaigned hard for the League of Nations, which was shot down by his own U.S Senate because of their unwillingness to give up their international power. The League of Nations idea evolved into the UN, which is, obviously, a reality today. The point is not that Wilson failed at accomplishing his particular vision. The point is that he attempted a revolutionary form of multilateralism that attempted to create an equal playing field among nations (even the U.S. had to relinquish some power) in order to promote communication and cooperation. Obama, too, may fail. He, too, hasn’t actually gotten much legislation passed by his own senate. The point is that he is reinventing that same multilateralism that Wilson aimed to create. His foreign relations policy is one of equal conversation in the Middle East, something we certainly didn’t see during the Bush Presidency, and a diplomatic philosophy that we, perhaps, haven’t seen since Wilson himself. So…my point: The Nobel Peace Prize isn’t always an award for a complete project, a peaceful movement tied up in nice bow for everyone to applaud without question. I believe the most important Peace Prizes are those awarded for vision and pursuit of a more peaceful world. Maybe we don’t have a clear list of documented accomplishments by the Obama administration, but Obama’s vision isn’t just an idea. He, like Wilson, is practicing what he preaches, campaigning and taking action to make international multilateralism come true. As Thorbjorn Jagland, the Nobel Committee chairman said, “the question we have to ask is who has done the most in the previous year to enhance peace in the world. And who has done more than Barack Obama?” Nobody.