In a new memoir, Geir Lundestad, the former director of the Nobel Institute, expresses regret at his committee's controversial decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama in 2009.
Lundestad explained that the rationale behind the decision was to "strengthen Obama" to pursue nuclear disarmament, but "it didn't have this effect." At the time, "even many of Obama's supporters believed that the prize was a mistake," early excerpts of the book reveal. Now, in retrospect, Lundestad agrees that "the committee didn't achieve what it had hoped for."
Lundestad's book, Secretary of Peace, will be released Thursday.
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