President Obama & his Nobel Prize – A preemptive move!

Few hours back, President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway & gave an excellent acceptance speech!! (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-acceptance-nobel-peace-prize)

Unfortunately, Pres.Obama’s selection for Nobel peace created a huge controversy (In fact, he acknowledged and addressed that in his acceptance speech). I think, critics have a valid point there. The deadline for nominations for the Nobel peace prize was Feb. 1st – just 12 days after Mr. Obama was inaugurated. Now with all due respect, Pres. Obama, no matter how great he is, could n’t have achieved that much to win a Nobel in less than 2 weeks. I highly doubt if anyone can actually come forward to even defend this logic.

Then, why did the Nobel committee choose him for peace award knowing this could get them into such a controversy. What were they expecting?

There are many viewpoints & versions of logic about what could be the real reason behind Obama’s Nobel. Here are my 2 cents –

I think, Nobel committee is trying for a “preemptive” peace. In general we expect a president/person to first work on help bringing peace & promoting democracy on regional or global level, or champion climate or environmental causes and after years of such work, Nobel committee may consider his/her nomination for Peace award. In which case. the over simplified game tree has to look like below: Pay-offs are intentionally omitted in an attempt to not hurt anyone’s feelings. (click on the image below for better resolution)

But this year, the Nobel Committee has turned that logic around! I think they just played a strategic move (commitment) – by just declaring the Nobel peace upfront to Obama, the Nobel committee is trying to influence the path that Obama is going to take in the future (see the modified tree below). It would be obviously embarrassing for a president with a Nobel peace prize in his pocket to start a new war or intensify a war or not signing a climate protection treaty or something like that. You got an idea. (click on the image below for better resolution)

I could not resist sharing someone's comment on the TV in this regard - Perhaps next year, they'll start giving Oscars to the people who have best chances of making the best movies next year!!

Let me end this post with a Nobel peace prize tidbit - Example of nominees who didn't win the Nobel peace prize includes Adolf Hitler, whose name was put forward in 1939!! (Can you imagine someone nominating Hitler for a noble peace!!!!?)