Tribute: A bronze statue of the US President as a boy was unveiled in Jakarta today (left). Obama lived in the region as a boy. Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama (right) believes the decision to award the President with the Nobel Peace Prize is 'a little early'
Ceremonial: Obama and his wife pose with, from left: Queen Sonja of Norway, King Harald of Norway, Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway and Crown Prince Haakon of Norway
Straighten up: Mrs Obama straightens her husband's lapels ahead of the ceremony
Honour: New Nobel Peace Prize laureate Obama and his First Lady Michelle arrive for the ceremony in Oslo's City Hall
Controversy: The President's accolade comes days after he announced he was sending 30,000 more US troops to Afghanistan
Accolade: Barack Obama accepts the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo today
Rapt: Will and Jada Smith hung onto the President's every word, but daughter Willow seemed to be getting weary
Faces in the crowd: Hollywood actor Will Smith with his wife Jada and their daughter Willow cheered on their President
Alert again: The little girl perked up as she met Obama following his speech
Jetting in: The Obamas arrive at Oslo International Airport this morning
Ceremony: The President takes part in a Nobel Peace Prize signing event in Oslo today
President Obama turned the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony today into a professorial address on why and when the United States was prepared to use force. There was, he admitted in the Oslo City Hall, some controversy over granting the ultimate peace accolade to the commander-in-chief of an army that was engaged in two wars.
The audience, a strange hotchpotch of Hollywood celebrities, pale Scandinavian politicians and rural Norwegians in folk costume, shifted uneasily when he talked about the necessity for bloodshed. Although the Nobel prize was established by the inventor of dynamite its laureates try to avoid dwelling on death.
“Some will kill,” Mr Obama said of the US soldiers under his command. “Some will be killed.”
He was intent on using the Nobel speech to discuss the costs of armed conflict and to examine “the relationship between war and peace, and our effort to replace one with the other”.
For all of his initial tension, his unusually uncoordinated movements, Mr Obama ended up more at ease in the City Hall than when he gave his other “meaning of war” speech to West Point cadets earlier this month. On that occasion, he struggled to find the language to persuade future officers that bearing arms in Afghanistan was a good cause. At the Nobel ceremony his task was simpler: to convince his huge television audience that the US was committed to multilateralism, to strengthening the United Nations and to nuclear disarmament; and that this was not a sign of weak resolve. The White House was not being governed by a pro-European patsy.
“It is also incumbent on all of us to insist that nations like Iran and North Korea do not game the system,” he said, making clear that he wanted international co-operation on stricter sanctions. “Those who claim to respect international law cannot avert their eyes when those laws are flouted. Those who care for their own security cannot ignore the danger of an arms race in the Middle East or East Asia.”
Mr Obama was on familiar terrain: in the land of rules. The Nordic audience clearly lapped it up and by the end of the day had almost forgiven him for snubbing King Harald by avoiding the traditional Nobel salmon lunch with the monarch. Wanting to avoid any sign of premature triumphalism, the White House had shrunk a ceremony that normally stretches to three days into a crisp 24 hours.
There is a pre-Christmas coziness to the Peace prize; it is chosen by five former politicians, often befriended, sometimes neighbours. This year the committee was chaired by the former Labour Prime Minister Thorbjøorn Jagland, and four women, the majority of whom had strong leftist credentials and a determination to reward the United States for shedding the legacy of President Bush. That fact that they were considering Mr Obama’s name as early as February was irrelevant. What counted was character, intention, a commitment to dialogue — and a rapid de-Bushisation of transatlantic relations. That was enough for the Nobel judges but it left Mr Obama beached, having to de-code and justify why he had accepted a prize that he had not yet earned.
Hence the truncated visit. A year’s worth of Norwegian social life crammed into a single white-tie banquet. Ms Obama had packed a dancing gown but the word was that there would be no serious waltzing on a day when her husband wanted to demonstrate his commitment to the seriousness of war.
“We can understand that there will be war and still strive for peace,” he said, thus parrying the critics who had pointed to the irony of the peace prize being handed to the architect of a future military surge in Afghanistan. The intellectual core of the speech was dedicated to setting out under what circumstances a war could be considered just, and what had to be done to create a stable rather than illusory peace. It was now essential, he said, to think deeply about the conduct of war. That was why, he said, he had started to close down Guantánamo Bay prison. “We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend,” he said, earning applause and very un-Nobellian whoop from the Hollywood benches.
Kristian Berg Harpviken, the head of the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo, told The Times: “There seems to be a reassessment underway as to how wars should be fought.”
Mr Obama seemingly wishes to develop the ideas about humane warfare that were first mooted during the war in Kosovo. “But there are problems,” said Dr Harpviken. “What is left of our protective mission if large numbers of civilians get killed? And is the price of avoiding US troop casualties, the greater exposure of Afghan soldiers?”
Mr Obama frequently referred to civilian losses in his speech, and he stressed that humanitarian intervention remained a justification for force. “Inaction tears at our conscience and can lead to more costly intervention later.” As he prepared for his Nobel banquet, about 6,000 demonstrators gathered close to the venerable 19th century Grand Hotel taken over by the White House.
What was striking was the fact that war protesters were outnumbered by climate change protesters. That balance might have been the result of watching Mr Obama on one of the large scale screens in the Norwegian capital. Or it might have been the eerie bright shining light that glowed over parts of the country just ahead of his visit. Not a UFO apparently, despite tabloid reporting, but probably a Russian rocket releasing fuel into the atmosphere. Whatever the cause, it seemed to make Norwegians more receptive to a finely tuned lecture on threat and opportunity, on war and peace.
Barack Obama was today awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize – just nine days after pledging to send 30,000 more US troops into war in Afghanistan.
In his acceptance speech, the President acknowledged the ‘hard truth’ that violent conflict won’t be eradicated ‘in our lifetimes’, and appealed to the international community to help him ‘reach for the world that ought to be.’
Of the controversy surrounding his prize, Obama reminded the audience he was ‘only at the start of my labours on the world stage.’
He added: ‘But perhaps the most profound issue surrounding my receipt of this prize is the fact that I am the Commander-in-Chief of a nation in the midst of two wars.
‘…I am responsible for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle in a distant land. Some will kill. Some will be killed.
‘And so I come here with an acute sense of the cost of armed conflict - filled with difficult questions about the relationship between war and peace, and our effort to replace one with the other.’
'I face the world as it is,' Obama said, refusing to renounce war for his nation or under his leadership, saying that he is obliged to protect and defend the United States.
'A nonviolent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al-Qaida's leaders to lay down their arms,' Obama said.
'To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism, it is a recognition of history.'
The President also insisted his goal is to advance US interests, halt the spread of nuclear weapons, address climate change and stabilise Afghanistan.
He said the criticism of his award may recede if he achieves his goals, but added that proving doubters wrong ‘is not really my concern.’
‘If I’m not successful, then all the praise in the world won’t disguise the fact,’ he added.
Obama's humility was in evidence ahead of his speech today when he commented: 'I have no doubt that there are others who may be more deserving.'
He ended his delivery with a rousing message of hope: 'We can acknowledge that oppression will always be with us, and still strive for justice. We can admit the intractability of deprivation, and still strive for dignity.
'We can understand that there will be war, and still strive for peace. We can do that - for that is the story of human progress; that is the hope of all the world; and at this moment of challenge, that must be our work here on Earth.'
Obama's accolade came as the Dalai Lama revealed his opinion that the award comes 'a little early'.
The Dalai Lama won his Nobel prize 20 years ago for his peaceful opposition to Chinese rule in Tibet.
He told Sky News: ‘I think if you are realistic, it may have been a little early but it doesn’t matter, I know Obama is a very able person.’
The Tibetan leader also warned President Obama against relying too much on his advisers.
He said: ‘Sometimes these individual persons rely on different advice from different people so like former President Bush junior, as a human being I really love him, really wonderful person, very honest, very truthful.
‘But I think due to his advisers’ views, some of the policies have been a disaster.’
Of Obama, the Dalai Lama added: ‘I think the Nobel Peace Prize gives him more encouragement and also gives him more moral responsibility.’
The peace award comes just over a week after Obama announced he was sending 30,000 more troops to the war in Afghanistan.
Indeed, Fidel Castro has denounced Obama’s acceptance of the prize as a ‘cynical act’ for this very reason.
The 83-year-old former Cuban leader described the President’s speech on December 1 where he announced the additional troops as giving him the ‘impression of listening to George W Bush.’
Meanwhile, a few dozen anti-war protesters gathered behind wire fences close to the venue today.
Dressed in black hoods and waving banners, the demonstrators banged drums and chanted anti-war slogans.
'The Afghan people are playing the price,' some shouted.
Protesters have plastered posters around the city, featuring an Obama campaign poster altered with skepticism to say, 'Change?'
Greenpeace and anti-war activists planned larger demonstrations later.
The list of Nobel peace laureates over the last 100 years includes transformative figures and giants on the world stage.
They include heroes of the president, such as Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela, and others he has long admired, such as George Marshall, who launched a postwar recovery plan for Europe.
'The president understands and again will also recognize that he doesn't belong in the same discussion as Mandela and Mother Teresa,' White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said while discussing the president's speech yesterday.
The Nobel panel cited Obama's work toward freeing the world of nuclear weapons, combating global warming, embracing international institutions and leading based on values shared by most of the people around the world.
On that front, he was deemed nothing less than 'the world's leading spokesman.'
The Nobel honour comes with a $1.4million prize.
The White House says Obama will give that to charities, but he has not yet decided which ones.
Other recipients of this year’s Nobel prizes include George E Smith, a scientist who escaped suicide bombers, and a writer who endured years of prosecution in communist Romania.
Romanian-born author Herta Mueller will receive the Nobel literature award for her critical depiction of life behind the Iron Curtain - work drawn largely from her personal experiences.
Mueller's mother spent five years in a communist gulag, and the writer herself was tormented by the Securitate secret police because she refused to become their informant.
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