Nobel Critics Ignore Obama's Massive Foreign Policy Impact

Thought experiment: Who else really should have won the Nobel Peace Prize? I am sure you can come up with some names, but the basic fact is that Obama - by making the most powerful country in the world not just reengage but lead on major global issues - has done more to promote peace and stability than anyone else. This really shouldn't be a shock.

Domestic reaction to Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize has been a classic case of missing the forest for the trees. Republicans are so blinded by knee-jerk opposition they border on becoming anti-American zealots. Our cynical domestic media is just focused on the day-to-day horse race of our politics. But both should recognize this award for what it is: a recognition that in the last nine months President Obama has completely altered the direction of American foreign policy and American engagement with the world. Gone is the approach that left America on the sidelines standing as an outcast superpower. Today the world's most powerful country is finally leading in the efforts to tackle key global challenges.

In his first nine months in office, President Obama has aggressively reengaged and reasserted American leadership on key issues, such as nuclear proliferation and disarmament, climate change, and Middle East peace. The President has also restored America's moral standing by implementing a timetable for the end of American involvement in Iraq, renouncing torture, and working to revamp America's detention policy. While the President has made significant progress on all of these issues, he has also faced obstacles and challenges to total fulfillment of his ambitious agenda.

But the Nobel prize doesn't just go to people who have completely succeeded in their efforts, nor is it a lifetime achievement award. Instead the Nobel prize is given to those who are working to bring about a better more peaceful world. Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, and Yasser Arafat received the award not because they had solved the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but because they had resolved to end it. The President without a doubt has a lot more work to do. But this is a moment to be proud of this country and of America's renewed status as leader of the free world.

 

 

Comments

[zanzig]

"a recognition that in the last nine months President Obama has completely altered the direction of American foreign policy and American engagement with the world."

Mr Bergman I think you are the only one of the Huffpost bloggers who has really understood why this award, now. Even the ones congratulating the President have not quite understood what the Nobel committee is saying: President Barack Obama represents the best possibility for peace for the world on so many levels. Just consider where Russia is sitting on so many issues now; or where Iran is (as compared to last year). North Korea remains the only recalcitrant one, and it has generally toned down its runbles for a while.

[skoooozle]

please lets not treat this man as millions did with reagan..as we loved listening to him people were dying of aids..igno­rance is bliss but arrogance is criminal..­this man is sending our soilders to their deaths with no evidence

[RogueCheddar]

As it sinks in, I'm beginning to agree with the decision. Being one who was shocked and thought it premature, everyone should in fairness look at Nobel's intentions; "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses­." The US President has, in such a short time, worked for fraternity between nations, stated as a goal a nuclear free world (regardless of that being unattainable in reality) and is using his diplomatic corps to lessen tensions in the hot spots of the world (peace congresses). The committee may be ahead of the rest of the world in recognising this and it might actually be the truest vote according to Nobel's will in many a year.

[lightnessandjoy]

I have been in Chile since July and living here for a year. I was also here during the Presidential elections last year and my personal experience confirms Mr. Bergman's words. I have never had much enthusiasm for the President on the domestic front - too many Wall Street buddies and just more of the same - but I had high hopes for him in foreign affairs and my hopes have been affirmed. He is truly regarde as a charismatic, hopeful voice for peaca and freedom.

Watching the conservatives and the teabaggers from afar is like observing a xenophobic tribe of cave dwellers who have absolutely no sense of how the world is changing. We talk of globalization and pretend we are still some isolated all-powerful empire. But the world is changing. We can never again depend on force of arms to maintain any kind of dominance, nor can we provide for our own needs. We have consumed 25% of the world's resources for decades, but the rest of the world is waking up and catching up. We can still be a poerful for freedom and change, but w must face the world with the hand of frienship extended.

I never expeced the Nobel for Obama, but it is well-deserved, perhaps more for his potential than accomplishments, but deserved just the same.

[SEQUOIABISON]

Great article Mr Bergmann.

In the last 9 months the president has given this nation and the world a new "birth of freedom".

Who else deserves the award more, is precisely the point. Who has spoken out so eloquently and consistently for peace, understanding between all nationalities and love?

Barack Obama has had to overcome worldwide condemnation of our unilateral renegade policies and provocative statements made by W accusing nations of being evil and identifying our invasion of Iraq as a crusade. Instead of focusing on individual isolated criminals, Bush condemned entire nations of people as islamofascists.

You would have to be living on Mars not to notice the complete transformation of our foreign policy, we are now willing to actually talk with fellow human beings from a different culture and different point of view, instead of shouting out saber rattling insults from a distance, and insisting that they agree to all of our terms before we will condescend to sit down with them.

Well done Mr President, some of us out here have been listening to your message of peace and love.

[PrudenceWorthington]

Thank you Mr. Bergmann. You have helped me understand this recent development with clear common sense. How refreshing!

[Smithn]

Thank you, Mr Bergman, for being a voice of reason and clarity in today's murky mud-slinging, fast-flyin' media world! Peace.

[trinfax99]

Thank you.. well said

[nlightenup]

Thank you! I kept reading articles and wondering why people weren't taking the Nobel Prize committee's words at face value. Sad and troubling that so many Americans, including liberals and progressives, are so myopic.

[laotzunietzsche]

It is a tribute to the biased media and ignorant, racist populaces of the the US, North Korea, Great Britain, Israel , Iran and Venezuela that they are, nearly, the only countries in the world that are utterly shocked by Obama's win. They, alone, are unaware (or unwilling to admit) of what he has done on the world stage.
To the other, roughly, one hundred and eighty countries of the world, it seems only fitting that he should win.
However, I am not about to try and convince anyone of the rationale involved.
It would be like trying to teach a fish to fly.
Still, one should ask oneself, "Why are the two groups most outraged the Republicans and al-Qaida?"
Are they both fueled by fear, hatred, religious zealotry and a skewed world-view?
Do they both believe that violence is a legitimate way to change a government?
Do they both have an unwavering sense of indignity that they emote with every word they utter?
Hmm. . . I wonder. . .
Oh, well.