I can imagine some people may have believe that Obama's first election signified, well, Hope and Change.
But in the intervening years, we see that the Obama administration's foreign policy, at least as seen through its end effects, is scarcely distinguishable from that of GWB. The Iraq war "ended" precisely on the same schedule that GWB had put forward, we've found ourselves in an increasing number of armed conflicts, and we still seem to see the world as being beholden to American interests (e.g., countries around the world are expected to run their domestic policies such that they align with the US war on drugs).
So it doesn't seem like the Prize did very much to encourage Pres. Obama to continue on a promise of peace. And why should it? If he does continue, he's not going to get a second prize. And if he doesn't follow through, they're not going to take the prize away.
One might as well say to a child "since you said you'd clean your room, here's some candy to encourage you to actually do the cleaning".
Note that while I don't particular care that Obama got the prize, I also don't think it was a particularly inspired choice so I won't defend the award. I think frankly few people would - it was very much a sign of the time and I agree with you that Obama hasn't done much to deserve it in retrospect. And we shouldn't really have expected him to either:
> I can imagine some people may have believe that Obama's first election signified, well, Hope and Change.
I find that curious, though, because he went into the election with a relatively conservative platform. It's not that long ago that his policies would have made him fit squarely in the Republican party. It's presumably exactly because of this he was able to draw in such a big portion of the electorate. That, and being painted as the anti-Bush.
> One might as well say to a child "since you said you'd clean your room, here's some candy to encourage you to actually do the cleaning".
There's actual psychology research to back up the idea that giving a reward in anticipation of positive action is in many circumstances more effective than promising a reward after the fact (Influence by Cialdini covers several different approaches to this, with references) so that's not such an outlandish idea, though not perhaps with that particular wording.
In general, we have a very strong predisposition for consistency. If we are surrounded by signs that we are seen as the type of person who does X, then we are more likely to do X. But a promise of a reward does not signal we're the type of person who does X, it signals that we're the type of person who will do X when the benefit derived is perceived to be greater than the opportunity cost.
(It's not clear to be, btw., that the Peace Price to Obama even potentially had a beneficial effect on this basis; it's not like it's a lever you can pull and it'll always work as intended on every person - if you manage to do things right to trigger the effect, it improves your average level of influence)
And we shouldn't really have expected him to either ...
I find that curious, though, because he went into the election with a relatively conservative platform.
There are at least three different levels to view this at. And thanks to the myth of the rational voter, there are plenty of people who decide that the appearance at one level is sufficient, and the cost/benefit of digging deeper isn't worthwhile.
On the surface, Obama was happy to allow people to believe something different even from what he was actually saying. Many pacifists supported him on this basis.
A level deeper, Obama was never anti-war. If you go back to the record, his only anti-war statements were specific to Iraq. He disliked the politics of that particular war, but never came out as a pacifist (contra those only looking skin-deep).
Deeper than that, we've got to consider political motivations behind his anti-Iraq-war stance. In retrospect it appears that this was largely a political position that was easy for Obama to take on because it entailed undermining GWB's (arguably illegally assumed) authority, thus shifting power away from the GOP and toward the DEMs. In this light, it's hardly surprising that he's chosen to eschew his opposition to unilateral executive power: when the shoe was on the other foot, he was able to obtain further political advantage by doubling down on the same abuses that he'd criticized just a few years earlier.
I can imagine some people may have believe that Obama's first election signified, well, Hope and Change.
But in the intervening years, we see that the Obama administration's foreign policy, at least as seen through its end effects, is scarcely distinguishable from that of GWB. The Iraq war "ended" precisely on the same schedule that GWB had put forward, we've found ourselves in an increasing number of armed conflicts, and we still seem to see the world as being beholden to American interests (e.g., countries around the world are expected to run their domestic policies such that they align with the US war on drugs).
So it doesn't seem like the Prize did very much to encourage Pres. Obama to continue on a promise of peace. And why should it? If he does continue, he's not going to get a second prize. And if he doesn't follow through, they're not going to take the prize away.
One might as well say to a child "since you said you'd clean your room, here's some candy to encourage you to actually do the cleaning".