“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1

In awarding the 2009 Nobel Prize for Peace to President Barack Obama, the Nobel Committee has put its faith in the ability of the president to inspire the world and thereby to push it closer to peace. According to Geir Lundestad, secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, it was a vote of encouragement. It was a vote of support for President Obama’s vision. It was a vote that put the gravitas of the Nobel Prize behind President Obama’s aspirations for peace through global cooperation.

Awarding this prize to President Obama after so short a time on the world stage makes sense when we view it through the lens of just peace theory. Unlike just war theory that comes to the fore at the point of crisis, just peace theory strives to keep the conflicts from coming to the point of a crisis that requires armed intervention. Just peace theory takes preventative steps to solve problems. Just peace is a process. Just peace theory may be understood within the context of three broad categories: truth, respect, and security.

Before Barack Obama was elected president, he articulated a vision where the United States would show respect to other nations of the world through an increased emphasis on diplomacy. He advocated holding negotiations with enemies without preconditions. During the campaign, speaking before a global audience in Germany, Senator Obama spoke the truth of American ideals that cohere with “aspirations shared by all people that we can live free from fear and free from want, that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and worship as we please.”

He told the truth of America’s struggles for freedom and thereby elevated that aspect of our ethos to a global stratum. Speaking of the people of the world he said: “We are a people of improbable hope. With an eye toward the future, with resolve in our hearts, let us remember this history, and answer our destiny, and remake the world once again.”

As president, Barack Obama has emphasized the importance of multilateral diplomacy. He sees the United Nations as an essential institution in building a structure of peace and security. In an essay – “Strengthen the United Nations and International Efforts for Cooperation and Human Rights” – published in Just Peacemaking: the New Paradigm for the Ethics of Peace and War new edition, Professor Michael Joseph Smith argues that in a post Cold War, post 9/11 moment the Westphalian model of distinct, independent nation states is obsolete. We live in a moment of interdependence. I say: It is the epoch of the network of mutuality.

Smith argues that given the tension between cosmopolitanism and the continued importance of ethnic identities and loyalties, the reality of threats posed by transnational terrorists, and the necessity for a doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect, a strong United Nations is more important than ever. Moreover, I say it is important to recognize that violence and war is of one piece. The same international structures that allow wars in African, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East are the structures that allow the violence over illegal drugs in Mexico and gang warfare on the streets of Chicago and other cities across the globe. The bi-polar power of the cold war era has exploded into a world of multiple centers of power where power is understood as more than simple military might. It is a world that now recognizes both soft and hard power, both positive and negative power. And given the information technologies and the new hypermedia, everyone has some say in some sphere of influence.

President Obama sees these 21^st century realities and has articulated a vision of global cooperation and the responsibility of ordinary people to make peace. Speaking about receiving the Peace Prize, the president showed his appreciation of the efforts of ordinary people, of the young people in the street to insist upon democracy in their country, of both warriors and workers for peace. He did not call her name, but he invoked Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi who lives under house arrest in Burma. He said: “This award is not simply about the efforts of my administration – it’s about the courageous efforts of people around the world.”

The Norwegian Nobel Committee recognized President Obama as a leading spokesperson for the international values that can lead to peace. It gave him the award because they recognize a change in the climate among nations, a willingness to enter into diplomacy, and they see this in no small way related to a vision that President Obama so skillfully articulates. I say: President Obama’s ability to speak inspiration to the world, to help ordinary people to understand the role we each play in peacemaking, and his commitment to lead the nation and the world to use the tool of diplomacy to get to peace, make him a worthy recipient of the prize. It is a prize given in hope and in faith.