press release

President Barack Obama was announced as  the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner

President Barack Obama was announced as  the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner today. The Norwegian Nobel Committee cited President Obama’s “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." Of special note was President Obama’s outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation.

The choice made Obama the third sitting U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Other U.S. presidents to receive the prize were President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and President Woodrow Wilson in 1919.

In their selection, the Nobel committee praised Obama's creation of "a new climate in international politics" and said he had returned multilateral diplomacy and institutions like the U.N. to the center of the world stage."His diplomacy,” noted the Committee, “ is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population."