[Vision2020] President Barack Obama Wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize

[Ted Moffett]

 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091009/ap_on_re_eu/eu_nobel_peace/print President
Barack Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize By KARL RITTER and MATT MOORE,
Associated Press Writers Karl Ritter And Matt Moore, Associated Press
Writers 2 mins ago

OSLO – President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for
"his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and
cooperation between peoples," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, citing his
outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation.

The stunning choice made Obama the third sitting U.S. president to win the
Nobel Peace Prize and shocked Nobel observers because Obama took office less
than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline. Obama's name had been
mentioned in speculation before the award but many Nobel watchers believed
it was too early to award the president.

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the
world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the
committee said. "His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are
to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are
shared by the majority of the world's population."

The committee said it attached special importance to Obama's vision of, and
work for, a world without nuclear weapons.

"Obama has as president created a new climate in international politics.
Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the
role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play,"
the committee said.

Theodore Roosevelt won the award in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson won in 1919. Former
President Jimmy Carter won the award in 2002, while former Vice President Al
Gore shared the 2007 prize with the U.N. panel on climate change.

The Nobel committee received a record 205 nominations for this year's prize.

In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel stipulated that the peace prize should go "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."

Unlike the other Nobel Prizes, which are awarded by Swedish institutions, he
said the peace prize should be given out by a five-member committee elected
by the Norwegian Parliament. Sweden and Norway were united under the same
crown at the time of Nobel's death.

The committee has taken a wide interpretation of Nobel's guidelines,
expanding the prize beyond peace mediation to include efforts to combat
poverty, disease and climate change.

___
Associated Press Writer Ian MacDougall contributed to this report.
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