Column: Premature Nobel puts pressure on Obama

By Jordan Stein

Published Oct. 13, 2009

The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to President Barack Obama last week has sparked a lot of discussion both at home and abroad. The surprising announcement by the committee has been called rash and political by some, bold and imaginative by others.

The committee's choice to award Obama seems a little undeserved to me, but I do understand why they chose him. I agree with some pundits who say Obama really hasn't done the legwork to promote his vision of a world without nuclear weapons. I feel Obama's ideas are in line with what the peace prize is about, but I do feel there was probably some other candidate more deserving.

For instance, the prime minister of Zimbabwe, a Colombian senator, a Chinese political dissident and a women's rights activist from Afghanistan are all distinct from Obama in that they've taken action to realize their peaceful ideals. Granted, Obama hasn't been in office long, but should the committee still grant such a high honor for someone's intentions? Obama's new award feels a little cheapened when compared to the actions of other candidates who were considered.

The implications of this choice are pretty interesting in the foreign policy sense. I think it's pretty clear the Nobel committee is awarding Obama for not being former President George W. Bush. The alienating policies of the previous administration have put the United States in an odd position with a lot of the European community. Giving the award to Obama could be the Nobel people thumbing their noses at Bush one last time.

But if this is the case, does the Nobel committee, and even the European committee by extension, really respect Obama's ideas? Or do they just welcome the change from the previous leadership? So many liberals have been reassured things will be different in the United States now Bush is gone and Obama is in. But when it comes to the international collective, does the rest of the world feel the same relief?

Obama admitted this award leaves a pretty high bar for him to jump. This adds an immediate pressure to live up to the honor of the Peace Prize. The next few foreign policy decisions he makes will be juxtaposed with winning this award, and judged accordingly. With tense situations in Iran, Afghanistan and Israel, Obama is in a tough position.

He will also be fighting an uphill battle for support from those who think he didn't deserve the award. Leaders on both sides of the Israeli and Palestinian conflict have indicated Obama doesn't carry extra clout just because he won a Nobel prize. Taliban leaders use the award for further rhetoric about the "hypocrisy" of American foreign policy.

Obama didn't ask for this award. And even though many pundits were calling for it, I would find it incredibly tacky and the wrong diplomatic move to turn the award down. It seems the slightly premature and overtly political decision of the Nobel committee is just another pressure Obama will be bearing.

I just hope the decisions Obama makes in the next few weeks both align with his new status and help prove himself in the eyes of his detractors. Then, perhaps Obama can earn the right to call himself a Nobel laureate.

Jordan Stein is a senior political science major. She can be reached at jesf25@mail.missouri.edu.