US president Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for giving the world "hope for a better future" with his work for peace and calls to reduce the global stockpile of nuclear weapons.
Obama chaired a meeting of the UN Security Council on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and was instrumental in the unanimous passing of a resolution detailing the elimination of nuclear weapons. His withdrawal of the plan to build a European missile defence system is said to have been key in convincing Russia, a permanent member of the Security Council, to agree to the resolution.
Obama is the third sitting president of the United States to win, and gets the honour less than nine months into his presidency.
Despite setting out an ambitious international agenda, he is yet to manage a breakthrough in the Middle East or in Iran's nuclear programme, and faces difficult choices on the conduct of the war in Afghanistan.
Does Barack Obama deserve to win the Nobel Peace Prize? If not, who does and why?
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