The Prodigal Son
In awarding President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize, the world, represented through the Nobel Committee, made a strong statement today, not about Obama or his accomplishments, but about the nature of international relations in the 21st century.
Last November the people of this country made an historic statement themselves, about what they believe this country is about and what it can do. It was a complicated message having many different themes, some of which bubbled below the surface, lest they hit the raw nerve of racism, but what people didn’t speak about, everyone knew was there. We felt it that night as total strangers hugged each other in the street. We saw it in each other’s eyes as we witnessed the birth of a new nation, one that would be very different from the racist, dominating, bullying country of the past.
To the rest of the world, I think the message they heard last November was this: "We're sorry for the last eight years of ruthless terror we’ve rained down. The attacks of 9/11 scared us and we didn't know what to do; we lashed out. But America is more than George Bush and Dick Cheney. It's more than Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. We are a good people and we really do believe in peace and international cooperation. We're ready to get back to that now."
I was really and truly proud of my country that night last fall. I didn't think I would ever feel anything like that again. I thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime event. Today I found I was wrong.
The world responded.
They said YES! and embraced us again as that idealistic country where everyone has a dream. We are the prodigal son returning home, once again part of the global community, welcomed back with open arms.
I know we're not there yet. I know we’ve still got huge messes to clean up. But it’s not about what we or Obama has done; it’s about where we’re going.
One day we'll look back on this time and see it as a significant turning point. There was a world of difference between the way late 19th century diplomats saw the world and the way the people who created first the flawed League of Nations and then the (still flawed but much better and improving) United Nations. The former saw competing nation-states, little self-contained empires that struggled ruthlessly and self-interestedly for dominance over each other. The latter saw, for the first time in history, the possibility (even the necessity of) "global community" and international law. That was the first step that marked the 20th century. This (the election and now the world's response to it) is the next step and it will mark the 21st. Neither step is perfect (e.g. the League of Nations, e.g. Afghanistan) and neither step is complete. But they are monumental shifts in international relations.
America is America again. We’ve come home.
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