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In print | Published October 22, 2009

Presented with the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on October 9, President Barack Obama seemed almost embarrassed as he addressed the honor with the requisite modesty and resolve to be resilient in the face of arduousness. And with good reason, cry many political commentators and ordinary citizens across the globe. Here we have the five-member Norwegian Nobel committee selecting a world leader who is not even a year into his first term — who was nominated not even two weeks into his first term, in fact — and has, by all appearances, achieved very little in the way of concrete peace.

There is no denying that Obama’s peace efforts are still very much a work in progress. In fact, the president currently finds his country embroiled in two violent wars in the Middle East. Action, not words, the prevailing advice given to young upstarts goes; Obama has seemingly offered nothing but words. He has given numerous speeches regarding the conflicts related to Afghanistan, Iraq, Armenia and Turkey, Palestine and Israel, Iran… and yet nothing has been done beyond mere posturing, the critics say. Still two senseless wars rage on, inheritances of the Bush administration (perhaps it would be helpful for Obama to solve those first before the committee in Norway starts handing out peace prizes!). Iran still may or may not have deadly nuclear weapons.

But to ignore what Obama actually has accomplished would be to ignore the magnitude of the transformation in the international community that his presidency has wrought, barely nine months past Inauguration Day. Forget for a moment the success of the Armenian-Turkish pact to normalize relations, fittingly sealed the day after Obama received the Peace Prize honor, or even the success of bringing in Russia’s strong, oil-fueled hand against Iran in the nuclear proliferation debate. Forget for a moment the precedence established by the Norwegian Nobel committee in honoring other noble works in progress, like the struggle of Archbishop Desmond Tutu against Apartheid, an endeavor still unfulfilled when Tutu received the Nobel in 1984.

Simply focus on the return of a previously belligerent and arrogant United States of America to harmonious and collaborative lines of international communication.

That is the America — and the world — that Obama has been striving for even before he became president. Detractors mock the Nobel committee for being seduced by Obama’s rock-star status overseas, and in doing so they fail to understand how powerful the motivations for our president’s rock-star treatment are. How many other world leaders can draw out hundreds of thousands of raucous supporters in a foreign country? How many can do it while representing a country still governed by a xenophobic and pathologically hawkish administration?

And yet that was what greeted Obama as he stood before Berlin in July 2008, with nothing else to offer but, of course, words.

At that time, in the city which once hosted the second-most famous wall of all time, he spoke of tearing down the walls dividing the international community. Then, as now, he spoke of refusing to let America turn inwards. “Now is the time to join together, through constant cooperation, strong institutions, shared sacrifice, and a global commitment to progress, to meet the challenges of the 21st century,” Obama said, still merely the Democratic candidate for the presidency.

That is the goal Obama continues to strive for today. The consistency of his message, even as it is tempered by practical realities, and the promise that his approach holds for the world are why he is a deserving selection for the Nobel Peace Prize.

There may have been other candidates who more concretely achieved peace — but what is concrete peace? Ours is a world that often looks like it is falling apart at the seams; it is one that renders even one of the greatest peace advocates of all, Aung San Suu Kyi, a symbolic and emotional power against the maneuvering of Myanmar’s military junta. Similarly, Obama’s determined aim to bring America back into channels of international cooperation is a testament to the fact that yes, sometimes there really is change and hope that we can believe in.

Perhaps, then, it is helpful to consider Obama’s Nobel triumph a symbolic one — and also helpful to recognize this that need not necessitate negative connotations. Nobel prizes, after all, are essentially symbolic gestures. Would Einstein be less of a scientist sans his Nobel Prize in Physics?

More importantly, have Obama’s deeds been enhanced by his Nobel Peace Prize? Probably not. But the prize is an affirmation of his message, a vote of confidence that indeed, his insistence on marching on the path toward peace is praiseworthy even if reality forces him to engage in conflict along the way. As intangible or naively lofty the notion of global optimism may be, the truth is that the rapidity with which America has recaptured good-guy status and its positive ripple effects are nothing short of shocking. His Nobel Prize, then, might just be a symbol of a symbol of peace — but considerable is the optimism it symbolizes.

It may be erroneous to award a man based on his promise. Most Valuable Player awards in sports, after all, are not handed out to the individuals who had the most talent, but to those who apply their talent most successfully. But to cite this against Obama’s triumph is to once again deny the scale of his accomplishments. Another Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Elie Wiesel, once said, “Words can sometimes, in moments of grace, attain the quality of deeds.” America’s re-entry into the international conversation, pride intact but ego in check, surely qualifies as a moment of grace. And when our president’s words do not happen to lead directly to peace treaties, they certainly promote, on the biggest stage possible, the cause of peace.

Is there much else that a Nobel Peace Prize demands of its recipient?

So when Barack Obama formally receives his Nobel Peace Prize two months from now, the man should display no trace of embarrassment whatsoever. His is certainly an honor well-deserved.

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