The Noble Obama

Our President has just accepted the most noble of awards—the Nobel Peace Prize. He most definitely deserves it. The reason he deserves it is that he has single-handedly improved America’s standing in the world with a new multi-lateral approach to diplomacy. As David Ignatius noted, according to the Transatlantic Trends report released earlier in the year by the German Marshall Fund, Obama’s approval rating in Europe is much higher than that of George W. Bush.

Some have questioned this award claiming that Obama has lowered the American presidency by groveling before the Europeans. What they fail to realize is that American national security and, with it, world peace are connected to countering the threats of terrorism and rogue regimes. The war against rogue regimes and terror is a military conflict but also, in the long run, a public relations war. We need the help of other countries to apprehend international terrorists and we need the Muslim public to believe what is most definitely true--that the values of the United States of America are essential to their security, international peace, ecological harmony, and global prosperity. Otherwise, more Muslims will be tricked into following those, who like al Qaeda, have distorted their great tradition.

Why can’t the USA just go it alone? The answers are obvious. First, we have never “gone alone” on any successful foreign policy venture. Even during the unpopular invasion of Iraq we were accompanied by the British and other allies. We won the cold war with many allies and we won it because Eastern Europe longed for American values. Eastern Europe looked up to America. We need Middle Eastern, African and Asian nations to understand that this conflict is no different. We stand for what is good and not just for what profits us or what relieves our own immediate short term fears (as many in the world and at home believe to be the case with the Iraq War).

Second, we do not have the military or the economic prowess we once had. The financial crisis has damaged our ability to project power. We live in the world of an economically and militarily emergent China that has embraced western economics but not western political democracy and pluralism. As China emerges as a world power, we will need our European allies once again, not to fight a war, but to sustain the interdependent network of democracy and human rights that the U.S. put together after World War II.

Third, countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction has always required international cooperation and trust. President Bush is a good man. Whether or not he was swayed by a militaristic Vice President, he overreacted to the threat from Iraq and undermined trust among many of our allies. Obama has restored that trust. Because we have the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, we are in a strange position to encourage non-proliferation. We need to convince the world that in the long run, we truly do seek disarmament. Our President has managed do that—quite a diplomatic maneuver.

Finally, next to the threat of WMD, the threat of global warming looms as one of our top hazards. Honestly, in terms of what America itself could lose from inaction—Florida, New York City, California coastal areas, trillions in property insurance losses—we need to let ourselves “feel the possible pain.” The President has managed to convince the international community that America is truly concerned about this threat and that we are considering serious action to counter it. Prior to this presidency, most Americans considered global warming to be a hoax.

We live in interesting times and, judging from his many speeches--especially his recent speech accepting the Nobel Prize, we have an engaging leader who has already fulfilled the world’s longing for an eloquent American statesman. We all need to celebrate this for the world once again looks to America for leadership. In America, we technically do not have nobility. We are a land of freedom. Yet, to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, we must foster a nobility of virtues and talents. Barack Obama has done that in his own personal and professional life, organizing communities, legislative coalitions and a presidential campaign in the pursuit of justice and peace. Now he seeks to do this for our nation and for our world, putting all of his energy into a truly noble goal which flies in the face of the corrupting cynicism of our times, an effort that has earned him the Nobel Prize.