The award, announced this morning, recognized the president “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” Media reports suggested the award was the Nobel committee’s investment in the future rather than a recognition of any actual, um, Peace.

After all, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are still being fought, the peace process in the Mideast is still a work in progress, North Korea remains a nuclear threat. According to the New York Times, which called the award ” a stunning surprise,” reporters in Oslo challenged the committee’s chairman, Thorbjorn Jagland, to explain:

Specifically, reporters asked whether Mr. Obama might not become mired in a war in Afghanistan as Lyndon B. Johnson was in Vietnam.

But the committee said it wanted to enhance Mr. Obama’s diplomatic efforts so far rather than anticipate events in the future.

Mr. Jagland, a former prime minister of Norway, said that Mr. Obama had already contributed enough to world diplomacy and understanding to deserve the prize.

As to whether the prize was given too early in Mr. Obama’s presidency, he said: “We are not awarding the prize for what may happen in the future but for what he has done in the previous year. We would hope this will enhance what he is trying to do.”

The prize committee said it wanted to enhance Mr. Obama’s diplomatic efforts so far rather than anticipate events in the future.

National Public Radio said that the White House seems just as surprised as the rest of the world by the award. Look for an immediate backlash from Obama critics on the right, who will likely see the selection as another indication that Obama is Europe’s darling, admired as a symbol rather than for anything he’s actually achieved.

This article appears in Oct 8-14, 2009.