Is Barack Obama an extraordinary politician? The answer is yes, even after his US popularity ratings have taken a plunge and some weaknesses in style and substance have emerged. Has Obama done enough in 9 months to be declared a confirmed bringer of peace in parts of a violent world? No, and that is understandable, you can?t do that in 9 months. Is Obama?s job as US president necessarily to work for peace?that is, always avoid conflict, or always bring conflicts to an end?to the exclusion of all other national-strategic aims? The answer is no again, even though it might offend those whose undoubted good intentions come at the cost of understanding harsh realities. Questions two and three are just some of the many that indicate why the Nobel committee?s decision to award this year?s Peace Prize to Obama is distinctly odd. You get the distinct feeling that Obama got it because he is not George Bush and he came after George Bush. But are those good enough reasons to award a Nobel Peace Prize? Obama is a ruling politician, not a leader of a non-government peace movement, and ruling politicians should be judged by their work, not by the emotions engendered by their predecessor. Talking of Obama?s predecessor, European admirers of the US president are perhaps missing out on American Left?s increasing chagrin at what they see as Obama?s insufficient non-Bushness?
Guantanamo hasn?t been shot down, some prisoners there have been judged as too crucial to be allowed to walk free, even though due process wasn?t followed. Yes, Obama has shut down US-sponsored, non-US based interrogation centres. Yes, Obama went to Cairo and made a nice speech to the Islamic world (although, he didn?t say much actually). Yes, he has made softer noises on Iran. But Mikhail Gorbachev won the Peace Prize because he helped end the Cold War, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat got it because of the Oslo accord, Henry Kissinger got it because he negotiated the end to Vietnam conflict?what, by these standards, has Obama done? The decision to honour Kissinger looked strange to those on the Left, and they had a point. The decision to honour Obama looks stranger, whether you politically belong to the Left, Right or Centre.
Therefore, while the Nobel Peace Prize may or may not burnish Obama?s presidency, it will almost certainly raise more questions about the Nobel Peace Prize committee. Few famous awards are greeted with universal approbation. But few seem as driven by pop-politics as the Nobel to Obama seems to be. The committee, to borrow a word from the George Bush lexicon, has grossly ?misunderestimated? what the prize is supposed to be.