New prize means new pressure for president on key global issues

President Barack Obama, the winner of a Nobel Peace Prize predicated on
expectations and not results, faces increased pressure on Afghanistan
and climate change.

The surprise of Friday’s announcement was quickly replaced by confusion when it became clear that Obama was nominated for a prize that had a nomination deadline just 12 days after he came into office.

{mosads}The president said he does not see his win “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.”

That American leadership faces two significant tests in the days, weeks and months to come and Obama considers sending thousands more troops to the Afghanistan-Pakistan region and seeks to revive stalled climate change legislation.

The Afghanistan issue become thornier for a president who accepted the award hours before he was set to hold his fourth of five assessment meetings on the war with his top national security advisers.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was asked Friday to reconcile winning an award for peace and the consideration of escalating U.S. involvement in a deteriorating war.

Gibbs said “there are actions of necessity that will be and are taken by this country to protect our homeland.”  

“The discussion that will be had today is about a very dangerous region in the world, and there are steps that have to be taken to ensure that we are not attacked and that our allies are not attacked,” Gibbs said. “Those are steps, again, the president mentioned quite clearly in his speech.  Those are steps that he’ll make not lightly as commander-in-chief, but he will work every day to protect our homeland.”

Obama was already walking a fine line between Republicans joining U.S. commanders in calling for an enormous influx of new troops, and many Democrats who are either unsure of or opposed to ramping up the fight.

The president has repeatedly asked for patience as he considers all angles and develops a strategy, but Republicans like 2008 Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) have said that “time is not on our side.”

Friday’s announcement of Obama’s prize could further complicate what everyone already agreed is a difficult decision for Obama.

While Obama did speak to his duty as commander-in-chief during his remarks in the Rose Garden Friday — though he didn’t mention Afghanistan — he did discuss the issue of climate change, an issue the Nobel committee mentioned specifically in announcing Obama as its winner.

“We cannot accept the growing threat posed by climate change, which could forever damage the world that we pass on to our children — sowing conflict and famine; destroying coastlines and emptying cities,” Obama said Friday morning.  “And that’s why all nations must now accept their share of responsibility for transforming the way that we use energy.”

Despite similar pledges, action on climate change has slowed in the Senate after narrowly passing in the House earlier this year.

Obama and other world leaders have made bold pledges, like at last month’s G-20 summit in Pittsburgh, but U.S. credibility on the matter continues to lag.

After Gibbs said Friday that Obama will be accepting the prize in person in Oslo in December, he was asked if the president would also commit to attending the United Nations summit on climate change in Denmark that will going on at the same time.

The White House has been reluctant to commit to attending the summit, especially after last week’s embarrassing trip to Copenhagen which the president returned empty-handed from despite his trip to try and secure the 2016 Olympics for Chicago.

On Friday, Gibbs acknowledged that the Nobel ceremony in Oslo, Norway and the UN summit in Copenhangen are close “both calendar-wise and geographically.”

Gibbs said that currently there is not a heads-of-state level meeting scheduled at the summit, but that could change.

Environmental groups like Greenpeace were quick to respond to the announcement, saying that if Obama is to deserve the award, he needs to be stronger on climate change.

“We hope that the award of the Nobel Peace prize to President Barack Obama will give him the courage of his convictions on climate change,” said Gerd Leipold, Greenpeace International executive director. “If allowed to go unchecked, climate change will wreak havoc on our societies — spurring mass migration, mass starvation and mass extinction. It will spark conflicts worldwide.”

Leipold said if Obama “is to be a true Nobel Peace Laureate he must reverse the United States current blocking role in the climate negotiations to secure a fair, ambitious and binding deal for the climate this December.”

That looks unlikely as both administration officials and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) have said they don’t expect a bill to pass this year.

The biggest move Obama made during those first 12 days in office was to announce that his administration would close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba within one year.

But administration officials have recently suggested that Obama might miss that deadline as Congress has revolted against the idea of transferring prisoners to U.S. soil and other countries.

Despite increased pressure the president now faces on these issues as a result of winning the Nobel Prize, not even nine months into his administration, his advisers say they are optimistic Obama can use the award to continue to advance his agenda of peace internationally.

“I think one of the reasons obviously highlighted by the committee is that through engagement, through a renewal of American leadership, we can help lead the world to do many of the things that the president has outlined,” Gibbs said. “I don’t think that’s a bad thing.  I think that’s actually a very good thing.  

“I think America having that place in the world that can lead us to do the types of things that the president has outlined on weapons on mass destruction, on nuclear non-proliferation, and on issues of peace and climate change, are aspirations held by many.”