Obama's Nobel Peace Prize source of 'mockery'

Pundits believe that after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, US President Barack Obama is now open to criticism an even mockery should he fail to deliver his promises.

Paul Rogers, Professor of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford in Britain, yet argues that the "unusual" decision by the Nobel Committee is going to encourage Obama to complete an unfinished process.

"It is certainly a surprise (but) the Nobel Peace is quite often awarded for what you might call process, things under way, rather than completed achievements."

"We remember the prize being awarded to Nelson Mandela and Frederik De Klerk in the early nineties, before apartheid had ended," he told AFP on Friday.

Nevertheless, "there is certainly a risk that this could backfire. I would expect there to be very strong opposition to this decision in Republican circles in the United States," the British university professor reiterated.

Dana Allin, a senior fellow for US foreign policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, also believes that the gorgeous prize could be a source of 'criticism' and 'mockery' for Obama.

"Even for people who are generally supportive of Obama and what he is trying to achieve, this is going to be very easily parodied," he said.

"So the fact that it has come so early in his presidency before any of the things he has set out to do in international terms have been achieved is going to cause some controversy," Allin said.

Iain Martin, deputy editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe, challenged the Nobel Committee's decision by describing the award-giving a "completely bizarre" issue.

He said it was unclear why Obama had bagged the prize.

"For making peace, of a kind, with Hillary Clinton? For giving up the missile shield …For preparing a surge of troops and weaponry in Afghanistan?" Martin wrote on the newspaper's website.

Obama's stated goal of a world without nuclear arms prompted the Nobel Committee to offer the US President the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009.