President Obama's Nobel Speech

“I receive this honor with deep gratitude and great humility. It is an award that speaks to our highest aspirations — that for all the cruelty and hardship of our world, we are not mere prisoners of fate. Our actions matter, and can bend history in the direction of justice.” – Barack Obama

Since Barrack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, we have looked at his speech and worked on it during the last days before the holidays.We had to do some tasks and answer some questions, which you can see with the answers below.

1. What was the Marshall Plan?
This was a plan named after its inventor Secretary of State George Marshall, who was a fellow Nobel Peace prize winner. The plans intention was to create a stronger economic foundation of the Western Europe. In addition to rebuilt and remove the threat of internal communism after the Second World War.
2. Why is Obama humbled by this award?
Barack Obama said he did not deserve the award because of the lack of achievement. He was humbled for receiving it, and he felt he had not accomplished anything yet worthy of the prize. However, it was an inspiration to him for attaining his future goals.
3. Who was Woodrow Wilson and why was he awarded the Nobel peace prize?
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States. He was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1919 for his attempt to make peace after the First World War, with his fourteen points for peace.
4. Who are some of the previous winners that he mentions?
Some of the previous Nobel Peace Prize winners Obama mentions in his speech are Nelson Mandela, Albert Scweitzer, Martin Luther King Jr. They all accomplished a great deal with their work on achieving world peace.
5. According to Obama, what is a just reason for war?
According to Obama, reasons for a “just war” is if it is waged as a last resort or in self-defense, if the forced used is proportional and if civilians are spared from violence.
6. What are Obama’s 3 ways to avoid war and keep the peace?
The three ways that Obama believes will avoid war and keep the peace are as follows: Deal with those nations which breaks the rules and laws, find out the nature of the peace that we seek and not only include civil and political right, but include economic security and opportunity.
7. What “old architecture” is buckling?
“The old architecture is buckling” is said by Obama in the speech and what he means by that is that the other countries are no longer afraid of the United States as a nuclear superpower. The US have become weaker by the years and their threats against them have increased.
8. What does Obama mean by a “gradual evolution of human institutions”? Where is this quote from?
This quote is taken from one of the speeches of former President John F. Kennedy. Obama uses this quote by explaining how war can at some level be the human kind’s way of expressing feelings.
9. Why can’t Obama be guided by the example of King and Gandhi alone?
He cannot fight the war alone, and he says that he faces the world as it is and he cannot stand idle in the face of the threats to the American people.

You can read the whole speech of President Obama here.