A Bad Day For International Diplomacy

I'm sure I join all the world's citizens when I say, huh? A Nobel Prize... now?

I would think that anyone committed to a liberal internationalist, diplomacy-oriented approach to American foreign policy will be deeply dismayed by this Nobel. The thrust of progressive foreign policy, as I understand it, is not that it yields positive poll numbers, but substantive results. By bestowing a Nobel Prize on President Obama before his diplomacy has reaped any substantive gains, completely undermines the seriousness of this approach. And those now cheering the award would do well to consider this.

Creating a "new international climate" is irrelevant if that new climate does not translate into real changes on the issues on the international agenda.

(AP Photos)