Douglas Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University, is the author of “The Wilderness Warrior” and the editor of “The Reagan Diaries.”

I was shocked by the sudden announcement that President Barack Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize. I just didn’t see it coming. But, after a half-day of reflection, I now firmly believe it’s an inspired choice.

Certainly, President Obama doesn’t deserve the award for his presidential accomplishments. There hasn’t been a big Camp David-like peace moment since the inauguration. And he certainly didn’t end a major war (like Theodore Roosevelt did in 1905). Nor did he spearhead the creation of an institution with lofty goals like the League of Nations in the Woodrow Wilson tradition.

But the Norwegian Nobel Committee never claimed they were giving President Obama the award for his nine-month old presidency. Barack Obama, it seems, deserved the Nobel for his audacious ability to navigate the curse of racism with unparalleled integrity and high-mindedness. (Oslo, in fact, thought the same of Martin Luther King Jr. back in 1964 when the Atlanta freedom fighter won the coveted award at the age of 35.) Apparently the other deciding factor for Oslo was Mr. Obama’s high-profile promotion of international diplomacy in the traditional multilateral sense.

Plus, let’s face it, Obama has become the world ambassador of hope — quite a burden to carry. Millions of mothers in the world, whether in a remote village or a forgotten corner of urban sprawl, often tell their sons and daughters: “Yes, you can grow up to be like Barack Obama. Oh, yes you can!” As the Nobel Committee knows, there is a huge battle being waged between the forces of light and darkness in the world.

President Obama is one of the brightest flames the human rights movement has seen since Mahatma Gandhi (who never won the prize) took up his loom and marched to the sea. This doesn’t, however, necessarily mean Mr. Obama’s Nobel stature will hold up through the ages. History is known to play cruel tricks on it’s main-stage participants. (Take, for example, the sad fact that both Yasir Arafat and Henry Kissinger both won undeserved Nobel Peace Prizes.)

But Mr. Obama’s award seems different. No matter how his presidency develops or the planet evolves, he has already confirmed his place of greatness. For he didn’t just write “The Audacity of Hope,” he actualized it on the campaign trail of 2008. We spend billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to win over hearts-and-minds to the American Way. President Obama has done the same service on the cheap.

From Cairo to Johannesburg and beyond, he has inspired scores of marginalized teenagers to believe they have a chance at the Main Game, that ballot-box democracy does produce free-and-fair elections. Having our president win the Nobel should be a cause for national honor and civic pride. President Obama represents for the world the cornerstone of our heroic American tradition, where Horatio Alger-like personal biography intersects with our future dreams. Let’s be frank: without hope there is no peace.

Perhaps Chicago didn’t get the Olympics but President Obama nevertheless will soon bring back a handsome medal to U.S. soil. We should all be shouting, ”congratulations” to our 44th president for a day or two. To begrudge him the Nobel Prize is small.