The former director of
Norway’s Nobel Institute revealed this week that he regrets the committee’s
decision to give the 2009 Nobel Peace award to President Obama.
Geil Lundestad,
director at the institute for 25 years, said in his just-published memoir that
he and the committee had unanimously decided to grant the award to Mr. Obama
just after his election in 2009 more in hopes of aiding the American president
to achieve his goals on nuclear disarmament, rather than in recognition of what
Mr. Obama had already accomplished.
Looking back over Mr.
Obama’s presidency, Mr. Lundestad said, granting him the award did not
fulfill the committee’s expectations.
“[We] thought it would
strengthen Obama and it didn’t have this effect,” he told the Associated Press
in an interview.
The award so early in his
term appeared to take the Obama White House by surprise, and Mr. Lundestad said U.S. officials privately asked if
a Nobel Prize-winner had ever skipped the awards ceremony.
Normally the Nobel
committee’s decision regarding recipients remains private, and Mr. Lundestad’s
frank and revealing remarks regarding internal decisions have caused a stir in
Norway, detailing the politicking and compromises that have gone into
determining the annual laureate.
“Even many
of Obama’s supporters thought that the prize was a mistake,”Mr. Lundestad said. In the book, he expressed regret that the
decision had been based in a hope for the future rather than recognition of
past accomplishments, and that their expectations for Mr. Obama were not
fulfilled.
