Defining peace in a Trumpian era
Leaders worldwide, confronted by a U.S. president who styles himself as a peacemaker, reflect anew on the inner qualities necessary for peace.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Venezuelan opposition leader Mar铆a Corina Machado speaks in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 11, 2025.
Reuters
From Greenland to Ukraine to Venezuela, President Donald Trump has relied on a dizzying diversity of definitions for peace over the past year. They range from 鈥減eace through strength鈥� 鈥� using tariffs or troops 鈥� to temporary and shaky ceasefires. He has brokered deals that offer security if the United States gains natural resources or that assume economic integration between rivals can alone ensure tranquility.
He overarchingly sees his role as a 鈥減resident of peace鈥� (an allusion to 鈥減rince of peace鈥�) and as deserving of winning a Nobel Peace Prize or, at least, an actual winner鈥檚 gold medal given to him this month as a gift of gratitude. Lately, however, he鈥檚 warned that he does not feel 鈥渙bliged to think purely of Peace.鈥�
One of his definitions relies on capital investment. His new Board of Peace, set up at first to stabilize the Gaza Strip and fulfill his vision of turning the Palestinian enclave into 鈥渢he Riviera of the Middle East,鈥� invites nations to contribute $1 billion each to gain a permanent seat on the board. The writ of this body may now extend to all global conflicts, with what critics say is a design to replace the United Nations.
Many countries have either pushed back against Mr. Trump, agreed with him, or capitulated on his disparate prescriptions for peace. Some decry a loss of 鈥渘orms鈥� or an erosion of a 鈥渞ules-based world order.鈥�
A few leaders, however, have reflected anew on the kind of peace that is not merely an absence of violence or something transactional in nature but rests on what Maryam Bukar Hassan, a Nigerian poet and current U.N. global advocate for peace, calls 鈥渢he presence of understanding.鈥�
In Ukraine, for example, the people have shored up their defenses by improving integrity in government, encouraging creativity for engineers to design innovative weapons, and amping up truth-telling against Russian misinformation.
In Venezuela, the pro-democracy opposition leader, Mar铆a Corina Machado, says the freedom that ensures peace requires 鈥渕oral, spiritual, and physical strength.鈥� In a manifesto last year, she stated, 鈥淣o regime, political system, or tyranny has the power to rob us of what is divinely ours: the right to live with dignity, speak freely, create, dream, and prosper as individuals.鈥�
In Europe鈥檚 struggles with Mr. Trump over control of Denmark鈥檚 territory of Greenland, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told Politico:
鈥淥f course, our relationship to the United States has changed. Why? Because we are changing,鈥� she said.
鈥淎nd this is so important that we keep in mind: What is our position? What is our strength? Let鈥檚 work on these. Let鈥檚 take pride in that. Let鈥檚 stand up for a unified Europe.鈥�
Paths to peace vary, and Mr. Trump may succeed in many of his. Yet the type of peace that is inherent within individuals may be the most enduring. Or as a 1986 U.N. statement declared, 鈥淲ar is not in our genes, and we need not accept human aggression as a fate.鈥�