waffle

The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: the capital, invested in safe securities by my executors, shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: [..] and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.

– Alfred Nobel’s will

Barack Obama has done more than most people this year to heal rifts between his country and other nations and to work towards the far-off goal of abolishing nuclear weapons. He has conducted diplomacy on a level that we haven’t seen for at least eight years from a US president.

That puts him in the running; that makes him one of around thousand people in the world to qualify. That doesn’t award him the prize. That doesn’t mean he’s the person in the world to have done the most for peace, nor the person in the world that best qualifies for the prize described in the will. The two aren’t equal, and wishing they were doesn’t change the actual conditions.

There are probably candidates that were more qualified than Barack Obama for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize under its conditions.

However, pretending that he wasn’t qualified to be a candidate at all is disingenuous. A US president that does her job correctly is always in the running. The Peace Prize conditions are weighted towards state leaders, or those with similar reach and influence.

There’s a reason Barack Obama feels humble. He’s embarrassed. Let’s be clear. Barack Obama has been trying his darndest to resolve traditional deadlocks and it’s been most visible with regards to his foreign policy and diplomacy. It’s shown some results to date, and I know I’m happy that it has. But this is a process. The only thing that changed last November 4th is that a lot of people became willing to communicate again, and for the eleven months that have elapsed since, they have.

In several years, at the end of this process, Barack Obama may well have reshaped the landscape enough that anyone will consider the change meriting; let’s say by helping along the process to arrive at a fair and recognized Palestinian state, but it really could be anything. When Barack Obama says that he doesn’t feel like he belongs in the Peace Prize alumni, he is referring to this; many of the people who received the award were awarded it as a recognition of results.

Barack Obama receives the award as a recognition of potential, of which some has already been realized. It is not unprecedented, but it is not usual. I don’t doubt that Barack Obama would like a Nobel Peace Prize, but being the person that he is, I highly suspect that he would have enjoyed one awarded on the basis of acheived results rather than potential much more.

Barack Obama’s life story is one of being downplayed because of potential before he’s had a shot at execution, as if potential somehow hinders execution; his person is one that thrives on actual achievements. That’s what makes this all so weird.