US president Barack Obama is the surprise winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. According to the BBC, the Nobel Committee stated that Obama was awarded the prestigious prize for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples".

Obama, who was surprised and humbled by the committee's decision, sees his win more as a call to action than a recognition of his accomplishments. He had only been in office two weeks before the nomination deadline.

As reported by CNN, Thorbjörn Jagland, chairman of the Nobel Committee, recognises Obama's efforts at dialogue with world leaders to solve "complex global problems" and working towards "a world free of nuclear weapons." He also stated that "only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future." It is understood that the decision was unanimous and came with ease.

Although there is scepticism by the public as to whether this award was too much too soon for Obama, world leaders congratulated him. The committee defended their decision, stating that they wanted to encourage Barack Obama just as they had encouraged Mikhail Gorbachov in 1990 for his efforts to open the Soviet Union. "Obama's diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population," the committee said.

Barack Obama is the fourth US president (and the third while in office) to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Former recipients were Jimmy Carter in 2002, Woodrow Wilson in 1919 and Theodore Roosevelt in 1906.