Many people, including the president himself, were surprised this month when the Nobel committee awarded the peace prize to Barack Obama. His critics - as well as some supporters - questioned whether he deserved it. It was too soon, they said; he'd done too little. The Los Angeles Times posed a question to a collection of writers and scholars: What should the president do to earn the prize?

He's already made much progress

To truly deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, President Obama should do the following:

• Enter into serious negotiations with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev about reducing our two countries combined arsenals of more than 20,000 nuclear weapons.

• Reverse the U.S. decision to install missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic, thus reducing military costs and enhancing cooperation with Russia.

• Reach out to Muslim countries and peoples with a speech in a Muslim population center.

• In concert with five other countries, begin direct negotiations with Iran over its nuclear enrichment program.

• Re-initiate negotiations with North Korea to shut down its nuclear weapons program.

• Open relations with Myanmar, a potential transfer point for dangerous nuclear materials.

• While presiding as president of the United Nations Security Council, call for stopping fissile material production worldwide.

• Halt the worst global financial meltdown since the 1930s, preventing further economic hardship and possible outbreaks of new wars.

• Work with the U.S. Congress to introduce new legislation to address disruptive, conflict-producing climate change.

Oh, you say he's done all of these?

Then the real question is this: What must other world leaders and citizens do to deserve Obama's leadership?

- Kennette Benedict, executive director of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Refuse the prize

Obama ought to politely refuse the Nobel award and state that henceforth he intends to do his primary constitutional job by defending America and its citizens to the greatest extent possible - no matter how the world, or a Nobel committee, responds to his actions.

In Afghanistan, he should say, this means doing whatever it takes to militarily destroy al-Qaida and then immediately pulling out of that country lock, stock and barrel. He should say that America is divorcing itself forever from Colin Powell's idiotic "you break it, you own it" doctrine and that, therefore, the U.S. will engage in no more nation-building or democracy-spreading.

The president should pledge that America will go to war only as a last resort and will engage in no more offensive and unprovoked wars like the one in Iraq.

But he should make it crystal clear that any group or country that attacks the U.S. inside North America will quickly wish it was never formed. He should soberly promise calamity for the group or government responsible, as well as for its civilian supporters and infrastructure. America, the president should say, will never again go to war against a man - as it did against Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden - but against entities.

The president should close his speech by borrowing a slogan from the U.S. Marines, one that surely would have the Founding Fathers' approval. He should say to foreign friends and foes alike that they can have no better friend and no worse enemy than the United States of America, and that the choice is up to them.

- Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA's Osama bin Laden unit

Stop Iran

President Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize for his stated commitment to nuclear disarmament, and the most urgent place to begin is preventing an Iranian bomb.

That means keeping Iranian-American negotiations on a tight timetable and then, if negotiations falter, moving rapidly to significant economic sanctions. And if those fail, the president should sanction force - on the part of others if America can't or won't assume that responsibility itself. (next page »)