Donald Trump claims to have ended eight wars in just his first year in office. But in reality, several of his peace agreements have been largely fruitless.
”Today we are succeeding where many others have failed”, declared US President Donald Trump, as the presidents of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo signed a peace agreement earlier this month. According to the White House, this is the eighth war that has been ended single-handedly by a US head of state.
Across the Atlantic, however, peace seems unreal to many. Instead of rejoicing in the peace agreement, people in Congo have continued to hide, anxiously awaiting the next round of unrest, which continues unabated. A week after the agreement was signed, more than 500,000 people were internally displaced in the region, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Trump's peacekeeping forces versus reality
"This looks more like a political agreement brought about by American pressure than a real peace process or treaty," an anonymous aid worker in the Democratic Republic of Congo told DW, who testified that fighting was continuing.
It seems that the White House's rhetoric about Donald Trump's peacekeeping activities is not only at odds with reality there. Since the special peace ceremony for Cambodia and Thailand, organized by Washington in October, more than half a million people have fled the border region, where clashes have not stopped.
Ceasefire violations between Israel and Hamas have been documented frequently in recent weeks, and the US role in the short-lived conflict between Israel and Iran has been more about the Islamic Republic’s inability to defend itself militarily than about any meaningful peace process.
Delay instead of lasting deterrence
Of the eight wars that Trump claims to have ended, two are not real conflicts at all. Egypt and Ethiopia and Serbia and Kosovo were not at war, but rather diplomatic misunderstandings. Elsewhere, even US allies are trying to distance themselves from Trump’s influence – in the India-Pakistan conflict, New Delhi wants to limit US involvement while Pakistan continues to court the Trump administration.
Arguably the only conflict that Trump has helped to resolve in the long term is that between Armenia and Azerbaijan, where a proactive US role has brought an end to nearly 40 years of tension. “What he calls peace has turned out to be temporary truces, normalisation deals or sham victories at press conferences that ignore the causes of the conflict,” says Medea Benjamin of the anti-war group Code Pink. “These are not durable peace agreements, but short-term political solutions that only postpone, not deter, a new war”, he commented.
For personal gain, but without putting in the necessary effort
Trump's desire to go down in history as the fifth American president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize is no secret. However, historian Theo Genou believes that the strongest desire of the American head of state is to be recognized worldwide as a great leader. “He knows that there is nothing better than to be considered a peacemaker. At the same time, he does not want to do the hard work required to become one. It involves following long processes of reaching understanding between warring nations,” says Genou.
Eugenio Costa Almeida, a researcher at the University Institute of Lisbon, says Trump is operating “on the border between geopolitical strategy, economic interests and the logic of personal and electoral approval of his leadership qualities.”
“America first,” the rest of the world second
However, Costa Almeida believes that Donald Trump is struggling to take all of this into account effectively. According to the researcher, a major problem is that the US president’s peace initiatives do not engage with all the important players in the conflicts.
According to Medea Benjamin, Trump’s peace efforts have little to do with a genuine interest in mending the world’s divisions and ending conflicts. In fact, by stopping these conflicts, Trump wants to meet the expectations of his voters, who believe in the slogan "America First". The way is to reduce the cost of potential military interventions abroad, as well as funds for the development of other countries.
In the great competition with China
But there is still the issue of war at home: America’s increasingly dramatic competition with China. According to the recently released National Security Strategy, countering China’s influence on the international stage is one of the top priorities of the US government.
Signing so-called peace agreements around the world allows Trump to “assert global leadership and position the United States as an indispensable mediator at a time when China is expanding its diplomatic and economic influence in Africa, as well as in other regions,” Almeida said. “Competition among world powers, especially for access to strategic resources such as critical minerals and rare earths, such as those in the Democratic Republic of Congo, suggests that reducing the sphere of influence of competitors such as China could be a major factor,” the expert said.
Genoux points out that Trump is willing to use “any means acceptable to him” to achieve his goals and those of the United States. He does not even hide that he will not hesitate to resort to “coercion or bullying to get what he wants.” So the agreements facilitated by Trump may simply serve the main goal of the unwitting participants “to win Trump’s favor and secure lower tariffs or closer cooperation with the United States on economic and defense issues.”