Trump as Peacemaker? Not so Fast.
Trump fundamentally misunderstands the nature of peace.
President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine is driven by a singular desire to be seen as the “Peacemaker-in-Chief”—someone who is deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize that he has hunkered after for many years. But this effort, as I write in my Politico Europe column this morning, is based on a fundamental misunderstanding.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s quixotic quest to receive the Nobel Peace Prizehas guided his foreign policy ever since returning to power. Unfortunately, his desire to be the world’s “peacemaker-in-chief” is based on a profound fallacy: that peace merely entails an end to fighting.
As any student of Prussian general and military theorist Carl von Clausewitz knows, war and peace are not opposites — they’re the two ends of a continuum that defines relations between states. “War,” the general once famously remarked, is “the continuation of politics by other means.”
It’s doubtful Trump has read Clausewitz, or that he even cares much about the actual details of war and peace. His goal is different: to be recognized as the person who ends wars.
“I’ve stopped six wars,” he said last month. “I’m averaging about one a month” — a claim that, if true, would indeed be deserving of a Nobel. So, let’s take a closer look at his record as peacemaker thus far.
Read the entire article Politico.eu.
Thank you for the fascinating insight - certainly, reputational concerns and domestic politics seem to be weighing heavily on Trump! Have just posted my analysis of the Washington summit and strategic priorities going forward: https://anyatrofimova.substack.com/p/allies-assemble-white-house-summit Would love to hear your thoughts!