President Barack Obama warned today during his acceptance speech at the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony that he will not “stand idle” in the face of threats to the United States.
At a ceremony in Oslo City Hall, Mr Obama said the use of force was sometimes justified, especially on humanitarian grounds and in the case of terrorist organisations like al-Qaeda, where negotiations would not cause them to lay down their arms.
He also called for tough action against countries that broke international laws, such as sanctions that "exact a real price."
Mr Obama said he was humbled by the award and received it with an "acute sense" of the cost of war.
"We are at war, and I am responsible for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle in a distant land," Mr Obama said. "Some will kill. Some will be killed."
Mr Obama said he recognised the controversy surrounding the award coming so early in his presidency and that he was surprised to join the ranks of those who have gone before.
"Compared to some of the giants of history who have received this prize - Schweitzer and King; Marshall and Mandela - my accomplishments are slight," he said. "But perhaps the most profound issue surrounding my receipt of this prize is the fact that I am the commander-in-chief of a nation in the midst of two wars."
The Nobel ceremony in Oslo comes a little more than a week after the president announced deployment of 30,000 more US troops to Afghanistan. He also is winding down the US military commitment in Iraq even as terrorist violence continues.
"I do not bring with me today a definitive solution to the problems of war," Mr Obama said. "We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth that we will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes."
There are times and events where the use of military force is "not only necessary but morally justified," he said.
Mr Obama told his audience there are three ways to "build a just and lasting peace". They include sanctions to alter behaviour, such as those against Iran and North Korea; the promotion of human rights; and, the use of diplomacy and maintaining economic security and opportunity.
Security does not exist, he said, "where human beings do not have access to enough food, or clean water, or the medicine they need to survive. The absence of hope can rot a society from within."
Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the five-member Nobel committee, said the awarding of the Peace Prize this year "must be viewed in the light of the prevailing situation in the world, with great tension, numerous wars, unresolved conflicts and confrontations on many fronts".
Mr Obama "has been trying to create a more cooperative climate which can help reverse the present trend," Mr Jagland said at the ceremony. "It is now, today, that we have the opportunity to support President Obama's ideas. This year's prize is indeed a call for action to all of us."
The president arrived in Oslo early today and went directly to the Nobel Institute where he signed a guest book in a room with walls covered with photographs of former laureates including civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
The president noted that he and first lady Michelle Obama were touched by the wall of pictures. "When Dr King won his prize, it had a galvanising effect around the world, but also lifted his stature in the United States in a way that allowed him to be more effective," Mr Obama said.
Mr Obama is the third sitting US president, after Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, to win the prize. Jimmy Carter was honoured two decades after he left office.
Some polls show that while many Americans are proud Mr Obama is receiving the award, a majority feel it is undeserved. Americans remain anxious about the economy, nudging Mr Obama's approval ratings down to 50 per cent or below and potentially hurting his Democratic Party in congressional elections next year.
Many people were stunned, including some in the White House, when the Nobel committee announced in October it was awarding the peace prize to Mr Obama for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples" and cited his push for nuclear disarmament.
Agencies