2009 Nobel Peace Prize

The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Barack Obama. The prize was announced by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo on 9 October 2009.

The citation

The citation reads: "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".

The laureate

Barack Obama was born in 1961 in Honolulu, the United States.

Why it matters

The award to the American president, less than a year after he took office, surprised many. The committee said it recognised his vision of a world without nuclear weapons and his new approach to international relations.

The prize

The prize is worth 10 million Swedish kronor. It will be presented in Oslo on 10 December, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite whose will founded the prizes in 1895.