The Illusion of Peace and the Reality of Negotiation |
In early December 2025, the Trump administration officially rebranded the U.S. Institute of Peace, a congressionally created agency, with Trump’s name prominently displayed on its headquarters in Washington, D.C. The State Department described Trump as “the greatest dealmaker in our nation’s history” and said the renaming reflects his role in brokering peace agreements. The change coincided with Trump hosting leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo at the building for a U.S.-brokered peace deal.
For decades, the world has been told that peace is the product of institutions. NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), the United States Institute of Peace, and countless other organizations have been funded with billions of taxpayer dollars, entrusted with the solemn responsibility of preventing war and fostering stability. Their headquarters stand as monuments to diplomacy, their budgets as proof of commitment. Yet when one looks closely at the record, the results are far less impressive than the rhetoric. These institutions have created the illusion of striving for peace, but they have rarely delivered it. They convene conferences, publish reports, and issue statements, but the citizens who suffer in war zones continue to die, displaced and forgotten, while the machinery of bureaucracy grinds on.
The contrast between this institutional inertia and the recent actions of President Donald Trump is striking. Since taking office in January 2025, Trump has pursued peace not through endless committees or abstract frameworks, but through direct negotiation. He has sat down with leaders, confronted the realities of conflict, and crafted agreements that tie peace to prosperity. In less than a year, he has claimed credit for multiple accords, eight with a ninth on the way, across the globe.
Whether one agrees with his methods or not, the tangible outcomes stand in stark relief against the decades of institutional stagnation.
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