Nobel committee aims to push Obama toward peace

• Source: Global Times
• [21:59 October 11 2009]
• Comments

As a result, the Scandinavians felt an old intimacy. The Nobel Prize judges, who have stored up discontent against the Bush administration, were naturally very happy to see the progress the US has made.

Assassinated Swedish prime minister Olof Palme, who was famous for his opposition to the Vietnam War, deeply embarrassed the US on one occasion. It is said that the Nixon administration even expressed its dissatisfaction by demolishing the Swedish Embassy in the US.

In an interview with Time magazine, Palme said, "We have been used to looking to the United States for moral leadership and authority when it comes to questions of peace and the preservation of basic human values […] And just because of this we feel our sorrow and our disappointment to be so great when something like the bombings of Hanoi and Haiphong happens."

His words clearly indicated the Scandinavian people's complicated attitude toward the US. We can also use these words, with slight changes to express the Scandinavian attitude toward Obama, "Our sorrow and our disappointment were so great as a result of Bush's policies, but Obama's new deals have made a good impression on us again."

However, there is still lots of skepticism around the world. According to the tradition of the Nobel Prize, the prize should be granted because of achievement rather than promise.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has attached special importance to "Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons."

No one doubts that the "Nuclear-Free World" or nuclear disarmament is a good idea, but even Obama himself said that the "Nuclear-Free World" may not be realized in his lifetime, and to many, it's a mere illusion.

It is rare, over the history of the Nobel Peace Prize, for an award to be given for an unrealized vision.

But it is not a bad idea for the Nobel Prize Committee to encourage Obama by giving him both $1.4 million, and more importantly, the status of the prize.

No one knows whether it is because the judges intended to drive Obama toward further positive measures. The really interesting part of the story is yet to come – whether Obama could satisfy the judges.

The author is a senior editor of the People's Daily