Nobel invests hope in Obama's leadership in challenging global issues
(From The Japan Times Oct. 14 issue)

要約
ノーベル平和賞で米大統領に大きな期待

U.S. President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize after less than nine months in office. His critics at home and abroad say the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision came too early since Mr. Obama cannot yet claim any concrete achievement in dealing with challenging global issues.

But since Mr. Obama took office in January, a "new climate in international politics" has set in, as the committee said, and the image of the United States has changed for the better.

The committee's decision to bestow the Peace Prize on Mr. Obama indicates its hope and expectation that doing so will provide impetus to his and the international community's efforts to resolve those issues, especially nuclear disarmament and the fight against global warming. In a sense, great responsibility has been placed on Mr. Obama to strive even harder for concrete results.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Mr. Obama: "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." It attached special importance to Mr. Obama's "vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons" and to the "more constructive role" that the Obama administration is playing "in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting."

Mr. Obama's overall diplomatic approach also received high praise from the committee. "Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play," the committee said. "Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts."

Apparently, the committee's decision caught Mr. Obama by surprise. In his remarks in the White House's Rose Garden, he said: "Well, this is not how I expected to wake up this morning ... I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel Committee."

He clearly understands the committee's expectations of him. He said, "I do not view it (the Nobel Committee's decision) as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations." He also said, "And I know that throughout history, the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes."

It will not be easy for Mr. Obama to live up to the committee's expectations, given the degree to which the interests of nations conflict in international politics. On the diplomatic front, he has not yet found solutions to problems in Afghanistan, the Middle East, Iran and North Korea. At home he has to improve the economy and prevail in a fierce debate over health-care reform.

But a cynical attitude toward Mr. Obama's winning of the Peace Prize will only aggravate problems the world is facing. Mr. Obama's prize should be taken as a cue by world leaders to persevere and work together to build a better world. The committee's mention of a world without nuclear weapons raises hopes for survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bomb attacks, and other people wishing to see nuclear weapons abolished.

Mr. Obama's speech in Prague in April generated global momentum toward nuclear disarmament. In that speech, he underlined the right of people everywhere to live free from the fear of nuclear weapons in the 21st century, declaring that "as a nuclear power, as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act."

In September, the U.N. Security Council, under Mr. Obama's leadership, unanimously adopted a resolution "to seek a safer world for all and create conditions for a world without nuclear weapons." But the United States must successfully conclude a treaty to succeed START-1 (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty-1) with Russia by yearend. The United States has not yet ratified the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The world must successfully hold a review conference of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty next year.

The international community also has to work out a post-Kyoto Protocol framework to effectively combat global warming. Mr. Obama's winning of the Peace Prize could motivate Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and other leaders to work with him constructively in tackling such issues.

就任間もないオバマ米大統領のノーベル平和賞受賞は、世界規模の問題に対し実質的成果を上げていないという国内外の非難を招いた。しかしノーベル賞委員会は、大統領が就任後、国際政治に新たな流れをもたらし、米国の対外イメージは改善されたという。

授賞の決断には、特に核廃絶と温暖化防止への大統領と国際社会の取り組みに弾みをつけたいという希望と期待が込められている。オバマ氏はより努力し、結果を出す責任を課せられた。

同委は、オバマ氏ほど世界の注目を集め、希望を与えた指導者はないとし、氏の「核なき世界」への構想と努力を重要視、気候変動問題に対する米政府のより建設的な役割を評価した。また、国連など国際機構の役割を重視した多国間外交を中心的地位に戻し、対話と交渉による国際紛争解決を目指す大統領の姿勢を称えた。

各国の利害が対立するなか、オバマ氏が同委の期待に沿うのは難しい。アフガン、中東、イラン、北朝鮮問題の解決は難航しており、米国内では経済再建や医療改革といった課題がある。

しかし受賞への否定的態度は現状を悪化させるだけだ。各国首脳は、よりよい世界を目指して励み協力せよという指示として受賞を受け止めるべきだ。委員会の「核なき世界」への言及は、広島や長崎、核廃絶論者に希望をもたらす。大統領は4月にプラハで「核兵器を使用した唯一の核保有国として行動する道義的責任」に触れ、人々が核に脅かされない権利を訴えた。

米大統領の受賞は、鳩山首相を含む首脳が氏と協力してポスト京都議定書の枠組み作りなどの課題に建設的に取り組む意欲を高めるだろう。