Nobel Peace Prize!

Congratulations to President Obama on receiving the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize! This is a great honor, and his remarks on the occasion show that he understands that.

People keep saying that it's incredibly premature and that he hasn't accomplished anything yet and that he doesn't deserve it. While I admit to being shocked at the news when a friend texted it to me this morning, the more I think about it, the more sense it makes.

Obama came to the Presidency after Bush's administration had done severe damage to the reputation of our country in the world. There isn't any denying that had happened, there is only a debate as to how much people care what the rest of the world thinks of us. However, in a few short months, Obama has managed to turn much of our foreign policy around. Yes, Afghanistan is still a mess, and yes, we haven't finished pulling out of Iraq yet.

However, we have presented an entirely new face to the world in terms of diplomatic engagement. Obama has made it clear that he is willing to pursue diplomatic means to achieve international cooperation and nuclear disarmament, and he has taken many affirmative steps towards that end - not least of which is engaging Iran and getting the UN to agree to pursue worldwide nuclear disarmament. So yes, there is much work to be done, but completely turning around the foreign policy of the world's most powerful nation, from hawkish to cooperative, in the first few months of his presidency - yeah, I think that's a pretty big accomplishment.