President Obama is surprise winner of Peace Prize

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama is stunning. Only two sitting presidents had ever before won the prestigious award, and Obama was nominated within weeks after assuming the presidency. Today's announcement comes less than nine months into his presidency and before any of his lofty proposals and initiatives have proven themselves.

This award, however, should strengthen Obama's standing at home and America's reputation in the world. The Nobel committee cited two of Obama's initiatives, his reaching out to Muslims in a speech in Cairo earlier this year and his recent proposal to reduce the number of nuclear weapons worldwide. Despite the president's olive branch extended to Muslims, Islamic terrorists have not laid down their arms or halted their suicide bombing campaigns. Nor have nations joined in singing "Kumbaya" as they beat their nuclear arsenals into plowshares. This award, like some previous Peace Prizes, is based more on intentions than on results.

The Nobel committee recognizes, even if some of his countrymen do not, that Obama has changed the tone of American diplomacy. The Obama administration has set a conciliatory, cooperative, multi-national agenda in international relations, a sharp contrast from the Bush administration's go-it-alone, might-makes-right attitude. But other than greater acceptance from other nations, the results of this attitudinal change are not yet tangible. America — and the world — still has problems to solve in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, North Korea, Lebanon, Haiti, Guatemala, and other hot spots.

The Nobel Peace Prize will give Obama greater prestige (and perhaps more respect), but it will not make the intractable international problems any easier to solve.