Julian E. Zelizer: When Nobel Prize rewarded failure
[Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. His new book, "Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security -- From World War II to the War on Terrorism," will be published in December by Basic Books. Zelizer writes widely about current events.]
Did President Obama deserve the Nobel Peace Prize? That debate will likely continue for weeks to come. But the more interesting question may be about what impact the prize will have on President Obama himself and the key decisions he must make about national security.
The case of Woodrow Wilson, the last sitting president to be awarded the prize, offers some useful lessons.
On December 10, 1920, Albert Schmedeman, the American Minister to Norway, accepted the Nobel Prize on behalf of President Wilson, who was being honored for his work in creating the League of Nations. The president had first been nominated in 1918, but strong internal disagreement within the committee delayed his receiving the prize. It was his actual campaign to gain ratification for the League of Nations agreement in 1919 that persuaded the committee he had earned the recognition.
Schmedeman read a statement from Wilson, who was in poor health after suffering a stroke, that said: "In accepting the honor of your award, I am moved by the recognition of my sincere and earnest efforts in the cause of peace, but also by the very poignant humility before the vastness of the work still called for by this cause."
Wilson realized that the award came toward the end of a presidency where he had failed to achieve many of his goals. There was a certain irony that the prize was awarded right at the time that President Wilson had failed to persuade the U.S. Senate to ratify the Treaty of Versailles, the agreement signed at the end of World War I.
One of the Norwegian newspapers, the Aftenposten, ran an editorial that stated: "After disappointment in Versailles he returned home a beaten man, ridiculed by his adversaries and fellow-citizens. By circumstances out of his control he was restrained from promoting his international peace work. As President of the United States he was unable to do anything more, but history will keep memory of him as creator of the League of Nations.
"To Europe and to great parts of America President Wilson looms as the man of peace who broke with the old doctrines and showed the way toward new ideas. He is, first and last, the great peace promoter -- popular among the victorious and among those beaten."
When Wilson received the Nobel Prize, his presidency was one of dashed expectations. In addition to the fact that the U.S. Senate had refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles -- despite a massive campaign by the president to pressure them into doing so -- many other things had been difficult in Wilson's second term. Though he had run for reelection in 1916 as a president who would keep the nation out of war, Wilson led American troops into a bloody battle...
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Did President Obama deserve the Nobel Peace Prize? That debate will likely continue for weeks to come. But the more interesting question may be about what impact the prize will have on President Obama himself and the key decisions he must make about national security.
The case of Woodrow Wilson, the last sitting president to be awarded the prize, offers some useful lessons.
On December 10, 1920, Albert Schmedeman, the American Minister to Norway, accepted the Nobel Prize on behalf of President Wilson, who was being honored for his work in creating the League of Nations. The president had first been nominated in 1918, but strong internal disagreement within the committee delayed his receiving the prize. It was his actual campaign to gain ratification for the League of Nations agreement in 1919 that persuaded the committee he had earned the recognition.
Schmedeman read a statement from Wilson, who was in poor health after suffering a stroke, that said: "In accepting the honor of your award, I am moved by the recognition of my sincere and earnest efforts in the cause of peace, but also by the very poignant humility before the vastness of the work still called for by this cause."
Wilson realized that the award came toward the end of a presidency where he had failed to achieve many of his goals. There was a certain irony that the prize was awarded right at the time that President Wilson had failed to persuade the U.S. Senate to ratify the Treaty of Versailles, the agreement signed at the end of World War I.
One of the Norwegian newspapers, the Aftenposten, ran an editorial that stated: "After disappointment in Versailles he returned home a beaten man, ridiculed by his adversaries and fellow-citizens. By circumstances out of his control he was restrained from promoting his international peace work. As President of the United States he was unable to do anything more, but history will keep memory of him as creator of the League of Nations.
"To Europe and to great parts of America President Wilson looms as the man of peace who broke with the old doctrines and showed the way toward new ideas. He is, first and last, the great peace promoter -- popular among the victorious and among those beaten."
When Wilson received the Nobel Prize, his presidency was one of dashed expectations. In addition to the fact that the U.S. Senate had refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles -- despite a massive campaign by the president to pressure them into doing so -- many other things had been difficult in Wilson's second term. Though he had run for reelection in 1916 as a president who would keep the nation out of war, Wilson led American troops into a bloody battle...