Donald Trump’s claim to have ended eight wars appears to be unravelling as a result of peace deals that “press pause” on the fighting and fail to deal with the root causes of each conflict, experts have said.
The US president, who was awarded the widely-criticised Fifa Peace Prize last week, has persistently boasted about ending the conflicts during his two periods as president.
He listed peace agreements between Israel and Hamas, Israel and Iran, Pakistan and India, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Thailand and Cambodia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Serbia and Kosovo.
But a deeper analysis of these disputes, as well as others that Trump has sought halt, casts doubt over his claim to be the President of Peace.
Cambodia and Thailand have resumed clashes at the border, Kosovo and Serbia are struggling to implement peace deals and Israeli attacks continue in Lebanon and Gaza. Trump has also failed to stop the war in Ukraine – a conflict he once promised to end “in 24 hours”.
Dr Melanie Garson, an associate professor of political science at University College London (UCL), says that while Trump should be credited for pushing for these agreements, the deals mediated by his administrations are “prone to failure”.
“Without the clear pathways, guarantees and oversight of the next steps, it leaves huge gaps in the system. Basically what you’ve done is press the pause button, and not the stop button.”
The “low quality” of these deals owes to Trump’s reluctance to surround himself with “real experts” who would challenge his authority as the “master deal maker”, says Dr Jonathan Monten, a US foreign policy expert at UCL.
“He wants to be perceived as at the centre. He is this master deal maker, not some you know, career expert in the State Department,” he told The Independent.
“So the quality of the preparation, the quality of expertise, the quality of diplomatic negotiation are all extremely low.”
Border clashes in Thailand resumed earlier this week, with hundreds of thousands displaced and at least 10 people killed.
It comes just weeks after the Kuala Lumpur peace accord was signed in October, with the prime ministers of both countries vowing their “unwavering commitment” to peace after the centuries-old border dispute was reignited in July. Trump attended the signing ceremony in Malaysia.
Thailand’s defence ministry said the recent attacks were “a last option”, while Cambodia accused Thailand of “aggressive military attacks”.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul confirmed on Friday that there was no ceasefire yet with Cambodia and said he had spoken by telephone with Trump. Anutin said Trump told him he wanted the two countries to return to the July ceasefire.
