Word: nobels
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Nobel committee awarded the 2009 Peace Prize to President Barack Obama Friday, Oct. 9, in a prospective, premature accolade normally reserved for those who have accomplished considerable, tangible results in the pursuit of peace...
...viewed as a first step towards reconciliation. Obama has committed his Administration to advancing Arab-Israeli peace from his first days in office. One can argue that he has tried to end a war, as he has begun to draw down combat troops from Iraq. And as the Nobel committee noted particularly, he has attempted to reinvigorate international agreements limiting nuclear weapons. (See pictures of Barack Obama's family tree...
...Nobel is Obama's for effort only, at best. The Arab-Israeli peace process is in disarray: after eight months of concerted effort by the U.S., talks have yet to begin, as both sides are stuck on whether Israel will freeze its expansion settlements in occupied Palestinian territory (so far, it has said it won't). Relations with the Muslim world have improved, at least by the measure of international poll numbers, but they have not advanced peace (or American interests) yet: Arab states are still resisting recognizing Israel, contributing to the problems besetting peace talks there. (See pictures...
...ending wars, Obama's first relevant act as the 2009 Nobel laureate for peace may well be deciding to send an additional 10,000 to 40,000 American troops to Afghanistan in hopes of conquering the Taliban and al-Qaeda. That is not an overtly peaceful move; in any case, it offsets any peacemaking argument that can be made with regard to the drawdown in Iraq...
...past is any guide, the Nobel won't make Müller a household name in America - it certainly hasn't done much for Elfriede Jelinek (who won in 2004) or Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio (2008). That may simply be because there is little in the lives of most Americans that resonates with what Müller has gone through. Then again, for Müller, life under tyranny seems to be in part a figure for the existential terror of life anywhere. It is a world of secrecy and universal suspicion. Everyone suspects everyone of betrayal...