The former Finnish president was awarded the prize for his work in several global hot spots.

The man you see here is the winner of the best-known prize in the world: the Nobel Peace Prize. Each year, a committee of five political experts in Norway award the Nobel Peace Prize to the person they think has done the best work to promote peace in the world. This year, they gave the prize to 71-year-old Martti Ahtisaari. For more than 30 years, Mr. Ahtisaari has worked on resolving conflicts around the world. Early in his career, he worked for the United Nations, in Namibia. Mr. Ahtisaari helped that country gain its independence from South Africa peacefully, after more than 10 years of negotiations.

From 1996 to 2000, Mr. Ahtisaari was the president of Finland. As president, he often traveled around the world, and helped negotiate between warring groups in Kosovo. Kosovo is shown on the map here, along with several other places where Mr. Ahtisaari has worked as a troubleshooter. A troubleshooter is someone who helps solve serious conflicts for other groups or countries. How many of the places on the maps here can you identify? Besides his work in Namibia and Kosovo, Mr. Ahtisaari has worked to end conflicts in Indonesia, Iraq, and Northern Ireland. In some cases he was successful and in other cases he was not. Do you think people should be recognized for doing outstanding work, even if their efforts failed?