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Comment by zombio | Hacker News Reader

I don't really understand the nobel peace prize, or specifically why Obama was awarded it. I understand being the first black president of the United States is a big deal, but did he personally do anything to promote peace? Or does being black in the white house somehow lower racism, hence promoting world peace?

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I believe many people (including Obama himself) were surprised by his winning the prize. I don't think race was the primary reason (official or otherwise) behind his being awarded the prize. Among the main reasons for his nomination were "Obama's promotion of nuclear nonproliferation and a 'new climate' in international relations fostered by Obama" [1]. One pessimistic view of this statement is that Obama was essentially awarded this prize for not being Bush, who was perceived by many in the international community as damaging the state of dialog between nations. Arguably, this could promote peace. The view was not without criticisms :)

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Nobel_Peace_Prize

Wasn't so much about him being the first black President as much as him not being Bush/Cheney et. al. Still pretty premature of them since Obama ended up adopting and ramping up many of the foreign policies that made Bush/Cheney so despised by the world in the first place.

But everyone should have known that he was Bush, and he was Cheney. Maybe five of the several hundred major politicians in our country are not carbon copies of one another.

He was awarded the prize in the hope of influencing him to actually promote peace in the future.

The idea was that accepting the peace prize would have led Obama to see himself as a Nobel peace prize winner, and thus as someone promoting peace, and that he thus would subconsciously actually try to promote peace to avoid the cognitive dissonance.

It didn't work as well as it could, but maybe it worked to some extent.

No. It actually didn't work at all. The war in Iraq ended for Americans, but it's still a hell hole for the people who live there. Afghanistan will be the same.

He has brought international relations to a new low.

Quite a bit of it isn't directly his fault, but he has done little to improve the situation.

He was made a Nobel Laureate for not being George W. Bush.

It was awarded, in part, I believe upon campaign rhetoric that was not followed though on. There is something to be said for the crowds that turned out for his first speech in Germany and his most recent. Actions matter.

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