Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize, an Audacious Choice

138

October 16, 2009

Published in Libération.fr
(France) on 9 October 2009
by Fabrice Rousselot (link to original link to original)

Translated from by Alec Sprague. Edited by Louis Standish.

A Nobel Peace Prize for Obama? The decision of the prestigious committee took everyone by surprise.

The choice is audacious. For the moment, Obama just has the time to count the number of projects that have landed on his desk. He is facing a complicated future in Afghanistan and in Iraq, two countries where America is openly at war. He has barely skimmed the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

But the wise ones of Oslo took a necessary risk in betting on Obama's vision: one of a denuclearized world where diplomacy comes about through dialogue.

For Obama, already a historic president, the honor is immense. But the reward is backhanded. A Nobel Prize-winning president does not really have the right to fail...

Obama Prix Nobel de la paix ? La décision du prestigieux comité a pris tout le monde par surprise. Le choix est audacieux. Pour l'instant, Obama a tout juste eu le temps de compter les nombreux chantiers qui ont atterri sur son bureau. Il est face à un futur compliqué en Afghanistan et en Irak, deux pays où l'Amérique est ouvertement en guerre. Il a à peine effleuré le problème israélo-paslestinien. Mais les sages d'Oslo ont pris un risque qu'il faut saluer, celui de parier sur la vision d'Obama : celle d'un monde dénucléarisé où la diplomatie se forge par le dialogue. Pour Obama, président déjà historique, l'honneur est immense. Mais la récompense à son revers. Un président-Prix Nobel de la paix n'a pas vraiment le droit à l'échec...

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