Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to US president Barack 0bama in 2009 failed to achieve what the committee hoped it would, its ex-secretary has said.
Geir Lundestad told the AP news agency that the committee hoped the award would strengthen Mr 0bama.
Instead, the decision was met with criticism in the US, external. Many argued he had not had any impact worthy of the award.
Mr Lundestad, writing in his memoir, Secretary of Peace, said even Mr 0bama himself had been surprised, external.
"No Nobel Peace Prize ever elicited more attention than the 2009 prize to Barack 0bama," Mr Lundestad writes.
"Even many of 0bama's supporters believed that the prize was a mistake," he says. "In that sense the committee didn't achieve what it had hoped for".
Yup... they awarded the prize based on being elected...
