President Barack Obama The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." The Committee attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons and to his work in meeting the challenge of global warming.

"Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics," the Nobel Prize Committee said in its announcement of the Peace Prize award. "Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play."

“I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel Committee. Let me be clear: I do not view it 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. I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many transformative figures that have been honored by this prize," he said. "I will accept this award as a call to action, a call for all nations to confront the challenges of the 21st century.”, Obama said. The Nobel Peace Prize comes with a monetary award of approximately $1.42 million.

The Prize is presented annually in Oslo, in the presence of the king, on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel, who established the Nobel Prize system. Nobel died in 1896 and did not leave an explanation for choosing peace as a prize category.