Source: The Sangai Express / Prasun Sonwalkar
London, October 09 2009:
US President Barack Obama today won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and nuclear non-proliferation, a choice that came as a surprise considering that he assumed office just over eight months ago.
"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," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in a statement, announcing its decision to award the coveted peace prize to Obama.
The announcement came as a stunning surprise as Obama assumed Presidency just two weeks before the close of February 1 nomination deadline and was mentioned feebly in speculation while the names of Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and an African woman's rights activist were doing the rounds.
Obama, the son of a Kenyan father and a White American mother who became the first Afro-American President of the US, is the third incumbent after Theodore Rossevelt and Woodrow Wilson to win the peace prize.
Former President Jimmy Carter won the prize after his term.
"Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics.
Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play," the statement said.
Obama's 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.
The Committee said it also attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.
"Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts.
The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations," the statement said.