Nobel Peace Prize Committe Chairman Thorbjon Jagland Holds up a Picture of President Obama (Courtesy CNN)
Two more days to go before President Obama swings by Oslo, Norway to pick up his “premature” Nobel Peace Prize. Critics say the award is “too much, too soon.” But Obama supporters contend the prize is handed out for not what has been done, indeed it is an aspirational award – for what CAN be done.
In a piece for Foreign Policy magazine, Johan Berganas writes that if you hold some previous American peace-prize winners to the same lofty standards as modern critics would hold Obama, you’ll realize that they hardly have unassailable track records, he says.
Theodore Roosevelt became the first American Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1906. He received the award for his role in the negotiations of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty that ended the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.
But how much credit does Roosevelt really deserve? Both parties were already looking to cease hostilities. Russia was on the verge of defeat, and Japan was running out of financial resources to wage war.
Roosevelt can be credited with ushering in a new era of diplomatic negotiations — multitrack diplomacy — but he did not succeed in achieving anything other than a fleeting peace agreement.
Next up: Woodrow Wilson, who received the award for founding the League of Nations in 1919.
On the heels of World War I, the Nobel Committee lauded the idea of collective security. Nevertheless, Wilson’s vision quickly turned illusory; the league was powerless to prevent Europe from falling into the abyss of World War II.
And remember Al Gore? Berganas writes Gore’s 2007 prize recognized his efforts to put global warming on the international political agenda.
So, despite the various tornadoes that lift and thrash about Obama on a daily basis, read economic crisis, health reform battle, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is important to remember that it is this man that changed the face of America – literally.
Extending a hand of diplomacy to crazy dictators, putting diplomacy ahead of bombs, Obama represents – what CAN be and not what is. Maybe it is time for Americans to stop complaining and accept the peace prize with a measure of grace.
