Nobel Peace Prize 2009: A fumble

14 Oct

Posted by Aniruddha as Opinion

President Barack Obama is a good leader, but by awarding the Nobel Peach prize to him, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has disregarded the basic rules on which the Nobel peace prize is defined. The Nobel prizes should be based on concrete achievements, but it appears that the Nobel Peace prize for 2009 were intended to support initiatives that are yet to materialize like reduction in nuclear arms, reducing conflicts within nations, and fighting global climate change.

According to Will of Alfred Nobel, the Nobel peace prize should be awarded to the person who:
“during the preceding year [...] 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”.[1]

The key words to consider here are “preceding year”, “fraternity between nations” and “reduction of standing armies”

Obama was elected to presidency in January 2009. During the preceding year (2008) as a U.S. senator he did not put any special efforts to increase the fraternity between nations or to promote peace congresses. He did lobby for Nuclear Arms Reduction Act but we are yet to see it in real. All of his other efforts for peace like reducing conflicts with Muslim nations and combating global climate are initiated this year and are yet to materialize.

We are yet to see any co-operation between nations of the world that can be directly attributed to the actions of Barack Obama. It cetainly looks that he is working towards this, but still these efforts are unformed and the relations between Muslim countries and other countries of the world are strained.

Barack Obama has called for the withdrawal of US Army from Iraq, but we have yet to see how this decision turns out in future. There are still many open question whether US withdrawal makes Iraq a rogue state or proves to be good for the stability of Iraq. Does the cancellation of missile shield in Eastern Europe proves to be disaster and leave the Eastern European countries open to the threat of Iran? We are yet to see the outcome of these decisions.

All said, the decisions taken by Barack Obama are good but they have a long way to go before we can see any concrete results. The recent developments from countries like Iran and North Korea to initiate dialogue with USA is “ray of hope” for global co-operation and fraternity between the nations, but it still is in juvenile stage. He certainly be a good candidate for the Nobel prize in a year or two, but awarding him the Nobel Peace prize for 2009 is a premature decision and it shows that the Nobel Peace prize is politically motivated.