2009 Nobel Prize for Peace Goes to Barack Obama

After numerous meetings and discussions on the correct course of action, the Norwegian Nobel Committee decided to award this year's Prize for Peace to US President Barack Obama, “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” In the century since the awards started being handed out, no year saw as many competitors for this section as 2009, when the Committee had to select from some 205 candidates.

This year's favorites included Chinese dissident Hu Jia, Zimbabwe Prime Minister Mirgan Tsvangirai, Chechen lawyer Lidia Iusupova, Columbian senator Piedad Cordoba, Afghan militant Sima Simar, and Jordanian Prince Ghazi Ben Mohammed Ben Talal. The US President will receive a golden medal, a diploma, and a check of ten million Swedish crowns ($1.43 million). The award ceremony will take place in Oslo next month, the Committee has announced, quoted by AlphaGalileo.

The first African-American leader of the United States has ushered in a “new climate in international politics,” using his skilled ability to dialog and communicate “as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts.” The Nobel Committee has also revealed that he had been considered for the Prize less than one year into his term partially for “his vision of a world free from nuclear arms [that] has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations.”

Reporters present at the press conference rightfully pointed out the fact that Barack Obama had only been in a position of power since January 2009, but the Prize officials said that the reforms the President wanted to promote and implement were, obviously, different from those of his predecessor. Because he is in a position of power, the US Commander-in-Chief has the ability to considerably change the way the world views discussions and diplomacy, analysts say.

Obama studied political science at the Columbia University in New York, and then attended the Harvard Law School, where he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, in 1988. On November 4, 2008, he went on to become the first African American President of the United States. He was born to a Kenyan father and an American mother in 1961.