Obama's prize could help peace

[grassfed]

The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama is a testament to the world’s recognition of an inspirational leader who has overseen a seismic change in US foreign policy, from unilateral action to multilateral diplomacy. Many critics have suggested that to bestow this accolade on Obama so early in his tenure is premature. But Obama’s nine months in office have created – in the words of the Nobel Committee – an atmosphere in which “dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts.”

This new approach to international relations has seen progress in many protracted disputes, which for the previous eight years had stagnated in the face of a reactionary Bush administration. Obama’s recognition that the world’s largest nuclear power should take the first step toward disarmament has opened the debate for negotiations on non-proliferation worldwide, no small feat for a new president. By refusing to isolate Iran and instead urge dialogue with its leaders, the country has moved from being a pariah of the international community to an associate at the negotiating table. Relations between the US and Russia were significantly improved after Obama took the decision to cancel proposed missile defense shields in the Czech Republic and Poland, a continuing source of animosity between the two powers.

This being said, the decision to award the prize may seem paradoxical to many in the Middle East who have seen little progress on the major issue of the Israel-Palestine conflict, and after a considerable increase in the number of troops in Afghanistan. While Obama has indeed made progress on nuclear disarmament and improved relations between big powers, actual conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and in Palestine continue to claim the most lives.

The Nobel Committee has taken a bold move by handing the award to an influential political leader still in office. In a change of course from previous years where the prize was more often than not given to retired politicians or those with limited political power, Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland stated it was the committee’s intention to “contribute a little bit to enhance what he is trying to do.”

Despite efforts by Republicans in the US to deride the significance of the award by linking it to Obama’s “star power,” the accolade is likely to embolden the US president as a peace negotiator. This could in turn lead to progress in the areas where Obama has been less successful, with Israel, Afghanistan and throughout the region. The timing of the award, premature though it may be, has revealed the hope the Nobel Committee and indeed the world holds, that Obama can make a lasting impact where others have failed.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=17&article_id=107351