Barack Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize
U.S. President Barack Obama passes by a battered United Nations flag
Philippe Naughton
Barack Obama sensationally won the Nobel Peace Prize today after just nine months in the White House in recognition of his efforts to return America to a multilateralist foreign policy.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it was honouring the 48-year-old President for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples". It said that it had attached "special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons".
Mr Obama was elected America's first black president last December and assumed office on January 20, succeeding George W Bush. Nominations for the prize closed less than two weeks later, on February 1.
But even though he has yet to serve a full year in office, the Norwegian committee said that Mr Obama had already managed to create "a new climate in international politics".
It said in its citation: "Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations.
"Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened."
It went on: "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. 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.
"For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."