President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize Oct. 9, becoming the third sitting U.S. president to receive it.
He was chosen for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," said Norwegian Nobel Committee in a formal statement.
The announcement came as a surprise to Noble associates, considering Obama became president with less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline.
Clearly, because of the timeline, President Obama's nomination and award were based on the totality of his efforts since coming onto the national and international stage over two years ago.
In that time he has done much to advocate for a new way of doing things and much to increase the conversations taking place around the world regarding peace.
This was reflected in the committee's statements.
"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," said the statement from the committee that was subsequently posted on blackamericaweb.com. "His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population."
Since taking office President Obama has continued this work. In June, Obama addressed the international Muslim community at Cairo University in Egypt as part of an effort to repair relations between the U.S. and Muslims around the world.
"I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings," he said before a captive audience. "Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire. The United States has been one of the greatest sources of progress that the world has ever known. We were born out of revolution against an empire."
The Nobel committee received a record 205 nominations for this year's prize. In his acceptance, Obama cited his own surprise in a televised speech given at The White House.
“I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Noble committee," the president said. "Let me be clear, I do not view it as recognition of my own accomplishments but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.
“To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who’ve been honored by this prize; men and women who’ve inspired me and inspired the entire world through the courageous pursuit of peace. But I also know that this prize reflects the kind of world that those men and women and all Americans want to build, a world that gives life to the promise of our founding documents."
Many question the committee's decision to award such an accolade to a sitting head of state with only nine months in office and two wars in the Middle East. The president is now entering nine years of U.S. occupation in Afghanistan, which began in 2001 under the orders of then-president George W. Bush. Recently he met with U.S. and NATO commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, to determine if a surge of an additional 40,000 American troops would be needed in the region to defeat the Taliban and other forces that oppose democracy and U.S. presence in the region.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee website notes that the Nobel Peace Prize can be awarded to "whoever shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses" but does not require the work be complete, just in process. Nomination criteria for the prize was recently expanded beyond peace mediation to include efforts to combat poverty, disease and climate change.
2004 Nobel Laureate, Wangari Maathai, told NPR's Michel Martin that she is proud of the president for what he has accomplished and what he represents to the rest of the world.
President Obama is the third African-American to be awarded the prize, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1964 and Ralph Bunche in 1950. Other sitting presidents to receive the prize were Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson in 1919.
The actual prize received is a personal diploma, a medal and a monetary award, currently worth $1.4 million. The White House has announced that the president will donate the entire prize to charity. The recipient charities have not yet been identified.
