Prometheus 6

Interviewed later in the Nobel Committee’s wood-paneled meeting room, surrounded by photographs of past winners, Mr. Jagland brushed aside concerns expressed by some critics that Mr. Obama remains untested.

“The question we have to ask is who has done the most in the previous year to enhance peace in the world,” Mr. Jagland said. “And who has done more than Barack Obama?”...

He identified Obama’s commitment to nuclear disarmament as the single biggest issue qualifying him for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Barack Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
By WALTER GIBBS and ALAN COWELL

OSLO — In a stunning surprise, the Nobel Committee announced Friday that it had awarded its annual peace prize to President Obama “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

Less than nine months after he took office, the committee said, Mr. Obama “has created a new international climate.”

With American forces deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Obama’s name had not figured in speculation about the winner until minutes before the prize was announced here.

Even then, the Zimbabwean politician, Morgan Tsvangirai, had been rumored as the favorite, and surprised reporters attending a news conference to announce the prize pressed the committee’s chairman, Thorbjorn Jagland, to explain the reasons Mr. Obama had prevailed over other candidates who included human rights activists in China and Afghanistan.

Specifically, one reporter asked whether Mr. Obama might become mired in a war in Afghanistan as Lyndon B. Johnson had been ensnared in Vietnam.

But Mr. Jagland said the committee wanted to enhance Mr. Obama’s diplomatic efforts so far rather than anticipate events in the future.

As to whether the prize was given too early in Mr. Obama’s presidency, Mr. Jagland, a former prime minister of Norway, replied: “We are not awarding the prize for what may happen in the future but for what he has done in the previous year. We would hope this will enhance what he is trying to do.”