What’s 18-karat gold, bears the face of a Swedish inventor and keeps Donald Trump awake at night? The Nobel Peace Prize. Trump began obsessing over the annual award long before he failed to win one during his first term as president.
Much of his griping has been aimed at Barack Obama, who was awarded the prize in 2009 “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
“They gave one to Obama immediately after his ascent to the presidency, and he had no idea why he got it,” Trump complained in 2019. He has vented at rallies, during interviews and at private dinners with visiting foreign guests.
On the campaign trail in October, Trump was still grumbling about his 2020 Nobel snub. “I got elected in a much bigger, better, crazier election, but they gave [Obama] the Nobel Prize,” Trump told a crowd in Las Vegas.
🎤
Follow Opinions on the news
The reminders will continue in the White House. Every time Trump walks into the Roosevelt Room, just across the hall from the Oval Office, Teddy Roosevelt’s 1906 Nobel will be there on the wall to needle him.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...d=mc_magnet-optrumpadmin_inline_collection_18
The president-elect is already Nobel Peace Prize shopping, peering down the aisles of conflict and crisis to gauge the easiest route to capturing the coveted award to adorn the lobby of Mar-a-Lago. How else do you explain Trump’s about-face on Iran, from advocating a “maximum pressure” strategy during his first term to announcing in September that he’s open to talks with the Iranian regime?
Though it’s easy to scoff with moral superiority at Trump’s obsession with the Nobel, his vanity offers an opportunity to end hostilities in a number of global hot spots.
Trump should know, however, that the prize doesn’t come cheap. It’s not a blue-light special at Kmart. Those of us who value America’s leadership role in the world and appreciate the responsibilities that come with that need to spell out explicitly the price for a prize as openly as Trump declares his desire for one.
With each country in the so-called axis of upheaval — Russia, Iran, China and North Korea — facing its own economic challenges, there is a strategic window for us to forge a durable peace in regions of long-simmering conflict and weaken this coalition of outliers at the same time.
Hostages finally coming home. Hamas and Hezbollah militarily defeated and degraded. New governments in Lebanon and Syria. The Mideast is poised for the most significant strategic realignment in years. The ceasefire announced for Gaza is, however, just the start, not the end. The real work begins now.
The Middle East holds the greatest potential for a breakthrough agreement, starting with Iran. Inflation there is running above 40 percent, water and energy crises are worsening by the day, a brain drain is picking up pace, and public disillusionment with the country’s leadership is growing. The walls are closing in on the regime.
The toppling of Syria’s brutal leader, Bashar al-Assad, and Israel’s decimation of Hezbollah have led to the dramatic demise of the “Shiite crescent” in the region. And with Iran’s own military vulnerabilities exposed, the diplomatic resolution track is all the more credible.
Tehran’s choice is clear: Either continue to oversee economic collapse and repression as a pariah state, or meet the aspirations of the Iranian people for international recognition and participation.
In any deal, Iran would have to agree to shelve its nuclear program, abandon its funding and arming of regional proxies, and halt its meddling in countries such as Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. If Trump is able to broker this agreement with Iran, he would deserve a place on the Oslo City Hall podium.
As a bookend, a normalization agreement between Israel and the leader of the Islamic world, Saudi Arabia, would build on the 2020 Abraham Accords and cement Israel’s place in a more stable Middle East and as part of a unified grouping of regional allies and partners. It would also protect U.S. interests in the region and provide the Palestinian people with a clear path to self-determination. A “grand bargain” of this magnitude could lead to a truly historic reset in the Middle East.
Russia, meanwhile, has an economy that is crumbling after years of sanctions. Inflation is nearly 10 percent, the ruble has plunged since its 2022 high, battlefield losses in Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine are piling up, and Moscow’s clout with nations from Syria to Azerbaijan is fading. President Vladimir Putin is not so much a modern-day Peter the Great as an emperor with no clothes. Behind all the bravado is an autocrat keen to end the conflict in Ukraine and arrest his country’s decline.
Putting aside Trump’s overblown promise of bringing about an end to the war in one day, he will be in a strong position at the negotiating table. He must use it to safeguard Ukraine’s sovereignty. Any settlement should commit Moscow to an immediate cessation of hostilities with Ukraine and gray-zone attacks on European nations while guaranteeing Kyiv’s freedom to pursue E.U. membership. Securing Ukraine’s future in a stable Europe would be Nobel-worthy. But, as in the Middle East, a deal just for the sake of a deal would not.
Securing an agreement with Putin’s axis partner North Korea is much trickier. Trump met Kim Jong Un three times during his first term in office, but a deal eluded him. This time around, he will need more than “rocket man” insults and love letters to persuade the North Korean leader to give up his nuclear weapons.
Whatever one might think about Trump’s motives for seeking the prize, we should crave his success as much as he craves the validation. And if he is able to negotiate just one of these agreements, it could bring peace and stability to millions.
It might even warrant a new edition of “The Art of the Deal.” If so, I’d ask Trump for a signed copy.
Much of his griping has been aimed at Barack Obama, who was awarded the prize in 2009 “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
“They gave one to Obama immediately after his ascent to the presidency, and he had no idea why he got it,” Trump complained in 2019. He has vented at rallies, during interviews and at private dinners with visiting foreign guests.
On the campaign trail in October, Trump was still grumbling about his 2020 Nobel snub. “I got elected in a much bigger, better, crazier election, but they gave [Obama] the Nobel Prize,” Trump told a crowd in Las Vegas.
🎤
Follow Opinions on the news
The reminders will continue in the White House. Every time Trump walks into the Roosevelt Room, just across the hall from the Oval Office, Teddy Roosevelt’s 1906 Nobel will be there on the wall to needle him.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...d=mc_magnet-optrumpadmin_inline_collection_18
The president-elect is already Nobel Peace Prize shopping, peering down the aisles of conflict and crisis to gauge the easiest route to capturing the coveted award to adorn the lobby of Mar-a-Lago. How else do you explain Trump’s about-face on Iran, from advocating a “maximum pressure” strategy during his first term to announcing in September that he’s open to talks with the Iranian regime?
Though it’s easy to scoff with moral superiority at Trump’s obsession with the Nobel, his vanity offers an opportunity to end hostilities in a number of global hot spots.
Trump should know, however, that the prize doesn’t come cheap. It’s not a blue-light special at Kmart. Those of us who value America’s leadership role in the world and appreciate the responsibilities that come with that need to spell out explicitly the price for a prize as openly as Trump declares his desire for one.
With each country in the so-called axis of upheaval — Russia, Iran, China and North Korea — facing its own economic challenges, there is a strategic window for us to forge a durable peace in regions of long-simmering conflict and weaken this coalition of outliers at the same time.
Hostages finally coming home. Hamas and Hezbollah militarily defeated and degraded. New governments in Lebanon and Syria. The Mideast is poised for the most significant strategic realignment in years. The ceasefire announced for Gaza is, however, just the start, not the end. The real work begins now.
The Middle East holds the greatest potential for a breakthrough agreement, starting with Iran. Inflation there is running above 40 percent, water and energy crises are worsening by the day, a brain drain is picking up pace, and public disillusionment with the country’s leadership is growing. The walls are closing in on the regime.
The toppling of Syria’s brutal leader, Bashar al-Assad, and Israel’s decimation of Hezbollah have led to the dramatic demise of the “Shiite crescent” in the region. And with Iran’s own military vulnerabilities exposed, the diplomatic resolution track is all the more credible.
Tehran’s choice is clear: Either continue to oversee economic collapse and repression as a pariah state, or meet the aspirations of the Iranian people for international recognition and participation.
In any deal, Iran would have to agree to shelve its nuclear program, abandon its funding and arming of regional proxies, and halt its meddling in countries such as Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. If Trump is able to broker this agreement with Iran, he would deserve a place on the Oslo City Hall podium.
As a bookend, a normalization agreement between Israel and the leader of the Islamic world, Saudi Arabia, would build on the 2020 Abraham Accords and cement Israel’s place in a more stable Middle East and as part of a unified grouping of regional allies and partners. It would also protect U.S. interests in the region and provide the Palestinian people with a clear path to self-determination. A “grand bargain” of this magnitude could lead to a truly historic reset in the Middle East.
Russia, meanwhile, has an economy that is crumbling after years of sanctions. Inflation is nearly 10 percent, the ruble has plunged since its 2022 high, battlefield losses in Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine are piling up, and Moscow’s clout with nations from Syria to Azerbaijan is fading. President Vladimir Putin is not so much a modern-day Peter the Great as an emperor with no clothes. Behind all the bravado is an autocrat keen to end the conflict in Ukraine and arrest his country’s decline.
Putting aside Trump’s overblown promise of bringing about an end to the war in one day, he will be in a strong position at the negotiating table. He must use it to safeguard Ukraine’s sovereignty. Any settlement should commit Moscow to an immediate cessation of hostilities with Ukraine and gray-zone attacks on European nations while guaranteeing Kyiv’s freedom to pursue E.U. membership. Securing Ukraine’s future in a stable Europe would be Nobel-worthy. But, as in the Middle East, a deal just for the sake of a deal would not.
Securing an agreement with Putin’s axis partner North Korea is much trickier. Trump met Kim Jong Un three times during his first term in office, but a deal eluded him. This time around, he will need more than “rocket man” insults and love letters to persuade the North Korean leader to give up his nuclear weapons.
Whatever one might think about Trump’s motives for seeking the prize, we should crave his success as much as he craves the validation. And if he is able to negotiate just one of these agreements, it could bring peace and stability to millions.
It might even warrant a new edition of “The Art of the Deal.” If so, I’d ask Trump for a signed copy.
