Let us help you choose a UPS! Cashless payment, fast delivery. Why was Barack Obama awarded the Nobel Prize? Barack Obama Nobel Peace Prize for what

According to a statement by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo, the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to US President Barack Obama.

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The official wording of the committee states that Award given to the American President for his extraordinary efforts in strengthening international diplomacy and cooperation between people. "Dialogue and negotiation are the preferred tools for resolving even the most complex international conflicts. The vision of a world free of nuclear weapons greatly stimulates negotiations on disarmament and arms control," the Nobel Committee said in a statement.

"The President is deeply honored by (his) selection by the (Nobel) committee," US administration spokesman Robert Gibbs said. For my part The leadership of the radical Taliban movement condemned this decision. “We hope that this will encourage him to take the path that will lead to a just world order,” said Ali Akbar Javanfekr, assistant to the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said that his country’s Council of Ministers applauded the decision, and ex-President of Poland Lech Walesa called it too hasty. According to the French President, Obama's Nobel Prize means that the United States is "returning to the hearts of the people." The award ceremony will take place in Oslo on December 10, on the day of the death of its founder Alfred Nobel (1833-1896) - Swedish inventor, industrialist, linguist, philosopher and humanist. Barack Hussein Obama Jr. born August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, capital of the state of Hawaii. Father Barack Hussein Obama Sr. came to the United States from Kenya to study economics. Mother - white American Stanley Ann Dunham - studied anthropology. Barack's parents separated when he was two years old. My father went to Harvard to continue his studies, and then went back to Kenya. Anne Dunham married again - to an Indonesian student. In 1976, Obama moved to Indonesia and in 1980 returned to Hawaii, where he attended private school and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991.

In 1996, Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate as a Democratic member. In 2000, he ran for the US House of Representatives, but lost the primaries. In 2004, he ran for election to a vacant seat in the US Senate and was able to get 70% of the votes. Became the fifth black senator in US history.

Obama won the 2008 presidential election, beating the ruling Republican Party candidate John McCain. In 2005, Time magazine named Obama one of the most influential people in the world, and the British magazine New Statement placed him among the 10 people “who could shake the world.”

According to RIA Novosti, Barack Obama is the author of two books: in 1995, he published the memoir “Dreams from My Father,” and in 2006, the book “The Audacity of Hope.” Since 1992, Obama has been married to Michelle Robinson Obama, a practicing lawyer. They have two daughters - Malia and Sasha. He belongs to the United Church of Christ congregation, which he joined as an adult.. According to Obama, his main hobbies are basketball and poker.

A petition has appeared on the White House website calling on US President Barack Obama to return the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to him in 2009.

The petition condemns the US President's aggressive policies towards the countries of the Middle East, aimed at "regime change." In particular, it is said that military operations in Libya and Syria brought nothing but human losses.

In September, former director of the Nobel Institute Geer Lundestad said that US President Barack Obama, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, did not live up to the expectations placed on him. "Many of Obama's supporters think this was a mistake," Lundestad said. “The presentation of the prize did not give the result that the committee members expected.”

Then Barack Obama himself was surprised by the committee's decision. Senior presidential adviser David Axelrod, commenting on this event and responding to the remark “the world community is shocked,” said: “So are we.”

Of course, “the world was surprised when President Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize.” But in 2009, the prize was seen as a reward for a leader who had put forward an ambitious plan to roll back America's militaristic foreign policy.

Six years later, even many of Obama's supporters doubt whether he deserves the award. In his memoirs, Geir Lundestad, the director of the Nobel Institute who left his post last year, wrote that awarding the prize to Obama "was only partly correct."

"Even many of Obama's supporters believed it was a mistake," he writes.

“Essentially, it was not possible to achieve what the committee hoped for”...

There have been plenty of complaints about Obama over the past 6 years. Consider the president's drone program, which is regularly criticized for its lack of transparency and accountability. Especially given the incomplete intelligence data, when the government cannot give a clear answer as to who the next victim will be. "Most of the people killed are not on the list, and the government doesn't know their names," Mika Zenko, a researcher at the Council on Foreign Relations, told the New York Times.

Obama is accused of failing to keep his campaign promise to close Guantanamo Bay and failing to act decisively on the Syrian crisis.

The "leader of the free world" has some successes while in office: securing the Iran nuclear deal despite much Republican opposition - earning him plaudits from security, diplomacy and nuclear energy experts. He also ended the war in Afghanistan and withdrew the bulk of American troops from Iraq - although the latter were mired there as if in a swamp.

“With ISIS walking around the world and defiantly disobeying Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. This picture suggests that the current administration could have done more to keep Iraq from catastrophe. But, of course, there is no evidence that the presence of US troops would influence the consolidation or collapse of the state,” Jason Brownlee, a professor at the University of the Middle East in Texas, tells the Washington Post.

Speaking about Obama's legacy, Nikhil Singh, a professor of social and cultural analysis at New York University, told New York Magazine in January of this year: “Obama was also hooked on overt US military action, just as George W. Bush was. What did he do to put his theses into practice, and even more so to change the existing situation? “Issuing memorandums against torture instead of bringing the executioners to justice?”

“Behavior like this condemns us to an uncertain future or, worse, a new round of dirty wars. Such ambivalence can be seen as a kind of achievement, an achievement not yet clear to the Obama administration, which can be called a banal extension of the Bush-Cheney policy. Obama's legacy is not yet set in stone, but it will extend beyond periods of war and peace,” writes Think Progress.

Thorborn Jagland, chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize committee, said President Obama today "really needs to think seriously" about immediately returning the Nobel Peace Prize.

Jagland, in the presence of four other committee members, said they had never before asked for the return of the peace prize, "not even to damned war criminals like Kissinger." But the reduction of the military contingent in Afghanistan by “as much as” 10% significantly ended the period when “it was still possible to behave without remembering that you were a Peace Prize winner. Guantanamo Bay remains open. Libya was bombed. Bin Laden was blown up instead of being brought to trial. Now it has been decided to send several American soldiers home... but the US goal of occupying Afghanistan remains unchanged. And don’t even think about Yemen!”

The committee awarded the prize to Obama in 2009 after he made a series of speeches in his first months in office: on “creating a new climate of multilateral diplomacy... ...emphasizing the role of the United Nations...dialogue and negotiation as tools for resolving international conflicts... and the future of a world free of nuclear weapons."

Members of the Nobel Committee listened again and again to Obama's speech in Cairo, raising their glasses to a glorious future: a black man leading America and the world into a new era of peace, hope and goodwill. “Within a few hours, it was as if we were 18-year-old students again at the beautiful and sunny University of Bergen! Oh, how we cried with joy!”

The Chairman says that "the Committee does not intend the penalty of getting the award back because they still like Obama, and that sending the medal back in a box by snail mail could help avoid the embarrassment of having to publicly return the award... The White House has refused comments,” writes The Final Edition.

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to US President Barack Obama in 2009 was met with criticism in the US itself. Many argued that he did nothing worthy of the award. Geir Lundestad explains the committee's decision by saying that he hoped to strengthen the position of the new president with an award.

“No Nobel Peace Prize has ever received as much attention as Barack Obama's in 2009,” Lundestad writes.

“Now even Obama supporters believe that the award was a mistake. In the sense that the committee did not achieve what it hoped for.”

Obama received the award from the hands of the Chairman of the Nobel Committee T. Jagland. It is known that at first Obama did not intend to personally go to the Norwegian capital to receive the award.

His staff wondered if there were any precedents for laureates skipping the ceremony. But this only happened occasionally, for example when dissidents were detained by their governments. “The White House then quickly realized that they had to go,” the WashingtonTimes quotes Lundestad.

It is significant that the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 to former US Vice President Al Gore and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change led to the resignation of one of the committee members. According to the rules of the Nobel Committee, the shortlist of candidates for the prize and all the circumstances surrounding the award must remain secret for half a century.

The Nobel Peace Prize has been the most controversial award throughout its history. Critics say the award has become too politicized; Obama's case is not the first time that a person's contributions to peace have fallen short of the award's high status.

Elena Khanenkova

* Terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation.

Young people, as you know, prefer to fight, while gray-haired elders fight for peace.

Contrast Award

There is no doubt that Obama himself considers the award well-deserved. Indeed, in the little over six months that have passed since his inauguration, the US President has shown himself to be not just an active politician, but also an extremely open person who knows how to listen to other people’s points of view. In itself, this is not God knows what kind of dignity, but in comparison with his predecessor on the American “throne”, Obama looks like some kind of Mahatma Gandhi.

The formulation of the Nobel Committee is traditional and streamlined: “For his enormous efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples, in recognition of his leading role in the peace process, which today characterizes an important part of the life of the international community.” Not a word about the fact that for these same efforts and this role, a good half of Americans cannot stand Obama: they believe that Barack strengthens diplomacy in the world too much and does too little in construction and healthcare at home. And now we can assume that such export activity may cost Obama a second term.

American dreams

The fact is that the United States is characterized by an extremely specific attitude towards the world. Until 1914-18, Americans professed complete isolationism - no serious relations with other countries, except perhaps Mexico, from which the States bit off one piece after another. After a short burst of activity, thanks to which the Americans even managed to become the victorious power in the First World War, they again went into diplomatic underground. And only after Pearl Harbor the country’s foreign policy doctrine changed 180 degrees. The United States decided that it had a tremendous responsibility to maintain world peace. And this can only be achieved in one way: by building military bases all over the planet and landing troops wherever there is some kind of disobedience.

Barack Obama seems to be offering a third way - to actively participate in international affairs and leave the baton at home. It was this decision, incomprehensible and unpleasant for his electorate, that delighted the Nobel Committee.

Soviet precedent

Of course, the award is an advance to Obama. Encouragement from old lady Europe - continue, tanned, in the same spirit. But the advance looks extremely risky. Let us recall that Mikhail Gorbachev received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 - under this undoubted peacemaker, riot police were created, the Caucasus flared up, many peaceful areas became the scene of battles, hundreds of southern villages were burned to the ground, and northern ones were abandoned by residents due to extreme poverty.

Alfred Nobel was a dreamer and idealist. Few people remember now that, according to his will, the prize was intended for young talented poor people so that they could devote themselves entirely to scientific research or their favorite art. However, the difficulty of identifying genius at an early stage led to the idea being turned inside out. The Nobel Prize is now compared to a lifebuoy thrown to a drowning man who has already made it to shore.

But in the case of Obama, Nobel's idea is embodied in its original form. Yes, the US President does not particularly need the monetary part of the award (and there is no doubt that it will be spent on charity), but otherwise he is that very young talent whose further development must be stimulated. The influence of the “hawks” in America is growing again, the black president has not yet achieved much success on the domestic front, so the award is a signal to the world to Obama: don’t back down, we believe in you.

And gratitude for the fact that after his speeches the podium smells of expensive perfume, and not of sulfur, as it did under his predecessor.

P.S. On the day Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, it became known about the Pentagon's plans to deploy a military radar station in Ukraine.

13:34 14.10.2009 Obama and the Nobel Committee. When war becomes peace, when lies become truth
4. Under the orders of President Obama, acting as Commander in Chief, Pakistan is now the target of routine US aerial bombing in violation of its territorial sovereignty under the pretext of the "Global War on Terrorism" as justification.

5. It is planned to build new military bases in Latin America, including Colombia on the immediate borders of Venezuela.

6. Military aid to Israel has increased. The Obama presidency has expressed its unwavering support for Israel and the Israeli military. Obama remains silent about Israeli atrocities in the Gaza Strip. There was not even a semblance of a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

7. New regional commands were strengthened, including AFRICOM and SAUZCOM

8. A new round of threats was directed against Iran.

9. The US intends to contribute to a further rift between Pakistan and India, which could lead to a regional war, as well as the use of India's nuclear arsenal as an indirect threat to China.

The diabolical nature of this military project was outlined in 2000 by the Project for a New American Century (PNAC). PNAC announced the following goals:

Defend the American homeland;

Conduct combat operations and confidently win simultaneously in several theaters of war;

Perform "police" duties related to the creation of security conditions in critical regions;

Transform the US armed forces using the "revolution in military affairs". (Project for a New American Century, Rebuilding Americas Defenses.pdf, September 2000)

\"Revolution in military affairs\" refers to the development of new modern weapons systems. The militarization of space, new advanced chemical and biological weapons, sophisticated laser-guided missiles, bunker-busting bombs, not to mention the US Air Force Climate Warfare Program (HAARP) based in Hokona, Alaska, are part of Obama's "humanitarian arsenal."

War against truth

This is a war against truth. When war becomes peace, the world turns upside down. Forming ideas is no longer possible. An inquisitorial social system is born.

Understanding of major social and political events is replaced by a world of pure fantasy, where "evil people" hide. The purpose of the "Global War on Terrorism," which was fully endorsed by the Obama administration, is to mobilize public support for a worldwide campaign against heresy.

In the eyes of public opinion, having a "just cause" for waging war is central. A war is considered just if it is fought for moral, religious or ethical reasons. This is the consensus on the conduct of war. People can no longer think for themselves. They accept the authority and wisdom of the established social order.

The Nobel Committee says President Obama gave the world "hope for a better future." The award recognizes his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation among peoples. The committee places particular importance on Obama's vision and his work to create a world without nuclear weapons"... His diplomacy is based on the concept that those who will lead the global community , must do so on the basis of values ​​and attitudes that are common to the majority of the world's population. (Nobel Press Release, October 9, 2009)

Granting the Nobel Peace Prize to US President Barack Obama has become an integral part of the Pentagon's propaganda machine. It provides a human face to the invaders, and it supports the demonization of those who oppose US military intervention.

The decision to award Obama the Nobel Peace Prize was undoubtedly carefully negotiated by the Norwegian Committee at the highest levels of the US government. It has far-reaching consequences.

It unconditionally supports US-led wars as a “just cause.” It glosses over war crimes committed by both the Bush and Obama administrations.

Propaganda of war: legitimate reasons for a state’s entry into war and criteria for its justice

The "just war" theory serves to cover up the nature of US foreign policy, while providing a human face to the invaders.

In both its classical and modern versions, just war theory supports war as a "humanitarian operation." It calls for military intervention on ethical and moral grounds against "rebels", "terrorists", "failed" or "rogue states".

Just war was declared by the Nobel Committee as an instrument of peace. Obama personifies "a just war."

Taught in American military academies, the modern version of "just war" theory is embodied in American military doctrine. The "War on Terrorism" and the concept of "prevention" are based on the right of "self-defense." They determine "when it is permissible to wage war": the legitimate reasons for a state to enter a war and the criteria for its justice or Jus ad bellum.

Jus ad bellum served to achieve consensus within the command structure of the Armed Forces. It also served to convince military personnel that they were fighting for a "just cause." In general, just war theory in its modern version is an integral part of war propaganda and disinformation in the media used to gain public support for the military agenda. Under Nobel Peace Prize laureate Obama, just war is becoming generally accepted, supported by the so-called international community.

The ultimate goal is to placate citizens, completely depoliticize social life in America, and keep people from thinking and understanding, from analyzing the facts and challenging the legitimacy of US-NATO-led wars.

War becomes peace, an expedient "humanitarian obligation", peaceful expression of disagreement becomes heresy.

The Nobel Committee gives the green light to military escalation with a human face

More importantly, the Nobel Peace Prize blesses the legitimacy of the unprecedented "escalation" of US-NATO military operations under the banner of peacekeeping.

It contributes to the falsification of the nature of the US-NATO military agenda.

Between 40,000 and 60,000 US and allied troops are to be sent to Afghanistan under the guise of peacekeeping. On October 8, the day before the Nobel Committee's decision, the US Congress provided Obama with $680 billion in a defense bill that is intended to finance the process of military escalation:

"Washington and its NATO allies are planning an unprecedented troop surge for the war in Afghanistan, even adding to the 17,000 new US and several thousand NATO troops who have been in that war this year." The number, based on as-yet unconfirmed reports from US and NATO commander Stanley McChrystal and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen, demanded from the White House ranges from 10,000 to 45,000. Fox News put the numbers higher at more than 45,000 US troops, and ABC News put it higher. than 40,000. On September 15, the Christian Science Monitor wrote about "maybe more than 45,000."

The similarity of estimates suggests that numbers have been agreed upon, and a compliant US media is preparing domestic audiences for the possibility of the largest foreign military buildup in Afghan history. Just seven years ago, the United States had 5,000 troops in the country, but was already slated to have 68,000 by December even before reports of a new deployment surfaced. (Rick Rozoff, US, NATO Poised For Most Massive War In Afghanistan's History, Global Research, September 24, 2009)

A few hours after the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision, Obama met with the War Council, or as we should call it, the "Peace Council." This meeting was carefully planned to coincide with the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

The key closed-door meeting in the White House Situation Room brought together Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and key political and military advisers. General Stanley McChrystal participated in the meeting via video link from Kabul.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal said he offered the commander in chief "several alternative options," including a maximum injection of 60,000 additional troops. The figure of 60,000 surfaced from The Wall Street Journal:

\"The President had a tough conversation about the security and political issues in Afghanistan and options for building a strategic approach moving forward,\" according to an official message from the administration (quoted in AFP: After Nobel nod, Obama convenes Afghan war council October 9, 2009)

The Nobel Committee gave Obama the green light in this regard. The meeting in the Situation Room on October 9 was supposed to lay the groundwork for further escalation of the conflict under the banner of fighting insurgency and building democracy.

At the same time, over the past few months, US forces have intensified their aerial bombing of village communities in Pakistan's northern tribal areas under the banner of fighting al-Qaeda.

Original article: Obama and the Nobel Prize: When War becomes Peace, When the Lie becomes the Truth

Everyone knows who Barack Obama is. True, the full version of his name is unexpected for most: Barack Hussein Obama Jr. It is quite difficult to believe that a man named Hussein became the President of the United States of America, but this is the truth of life. In less than two presidential terms, Obama managed to take many actions that were hotly discussed both within the United States and abroad. But one of the liveliest topics of discussion is the discussion of why Barack Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Question one: who is Barack Obama?

Who is Barack Hussein Obama Jr., born on August 4, 1961 in the Hawaiian Islands, that is, in the United States? So, we are talking about the forty-fourth and current president of the United States of America. He was first elected to this post as a representative of the Democratic Party during the 2008 presidential election and joined it in January 2009, replacing Republican John W. Bush.

Obama was re-elected to a second presidential term in 2012 and served from the beginning of 2013 until it expired in January 2017. According to the US Constitution, one person cannot be elected president more than twice. So Obama will be replaced in the Oval Office of the White House in 2017 by someone else.

Barack Obama has a unique achievement - he was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Since the winners of this award are announced in advance, Obama received it in October 2009, that is, less than 9 months after taking office as president. Moreover, the prize was awarded to him with the wording “for extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

During this time, Barack Obama managed to take the following actions, which can be attributed to the topic specified in the formulation of the Nobel Committee.

• First, he signed an order to close within a year the notorious prison for suspected terrorists located at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
• Secondly, even during the election campaign as a presidential candidate, Obama actively promised that if elected, he would withdraw all American troops from Iraq by mid-2009.
• Thirdly, Obama advocated establishing a dialogue with Iran, with which America has not maintained diplomatic relations for more than thirty years. True, after taking office, Barack Obama changed his views on the Iraqi problem. To begin with, he changed the expected deadline for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq to mid-2010 (in the end this was not achieved). Then in February 2009 he issued a decree to increase the American contingent in Iraq by 17 thousand troops. And after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, he sent another 30 thousand soldiers to Iraq.

Question two: what is the Nobel Peace Prize?

The picture of Barack Obama's foreign policy activities in 2009 is generally clear. What about the Nobel Peace Prize? This nomination of the annual prestigious prizes awarded by the Nobel Committee is the most controversial and, as many believe, politicized.

With the Nobel Prizes in literature, physics, chemistry, mathematics and other areas of scientific and humanitarian knowledge, everything is more or less clear. And around the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded since 1901, controversy almost always flares up to varying degrees of severity. Following the letter of the Nobel Committee's statutes, the Peace Prize can be awarded to individuals or organizations that have made the most outstanding contribution to peace during the current year.

The rules for nominating candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize are the most democratic; candidates can be nominated by members of parliaments and governments, members of international courts, rectors, directors and humanities professors of higher educational and scientific institutions, Nobel Prize laureates, members of prize-winning organizations, current and former members and advisors to the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

It is curious that one of the most famous fighters for peace between people and a supporter of the principles of non-violence, Mahatma Gandhi, never received the Nobel Peace Prize - he was nominated 12 times, but each time other, more “worthy” candidates were chosen. On the other hand, “peacemakers” such as Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler were nominated for the Peace Prize in 1935 and 1939, respectively. Immediately before Barack Obama, this award was received in 2007 by US Vice President Al Gore, and in 2008 by Finnish diplomat Martti Ahtisaari, the author of the plan according to which Kosovo gained independence from Serbia.

Question three: why Barack Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize together

This is what raises the biggest questions among many representatives of the international community: how the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a man who did not fulfill his election promises to withdraw troops from Iraq within six months. Not only did he not comply, but he also brought additional troops into the occupied country. And then, already in the status of a “Nobel peacemaker,” he not only increased the American military presence in Iraq, but as the head of the United States played a big role in starting the civil war in Libya (directly through military operations) and in Syria (through pressure on the Syrian government).

In addition, experts note the clear support from the United States for the revolutions that took place in the Arab world at the turn of the first and second decades of the 21st century, which led to bloody violent confrontation (especially in Egypt).

To find logic in the actions of the Nobel Committee when awarding the Peace Prize to Barack Obama, we need to remember that, as follows from history, this prize was not always awarded to real peacemakers. In addition, in 2009 there was another nuance - the possibility of signing a new Treaty on the Reduction of Strategic Offensive Arms between Russia and the United States was widely discussed. This treaty was an initiative of the Obama administration, so that in the eyes of the progressive European public, the American president could look like a fighter for a safer world, in which there would be fewer nuclear weapons.

However, in the end, the signing of a full-fledged Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty did not take place, and after a sharp cooling in US-Russian relations in 2014, the prospects for such an agreement decreased significantly. Meanwhile, some members of the Nobel Peace Committee, for example, Thorbieri Jagland, are already advocating that Barack Obama return the Peace Prize to the Committee as a person whose actions as head of state are in sharp conflict with the principles for which it is awarded.

Alexander Babitsky