Does Trump deserve the Nobel Peace Prize- Pakistan and Israel certainly think so

What price peace? When I went to work for UN Secretary-General, Ban ki moon, his conflict ‘in-tray’ essentially consisted of the vicious war being fought in Darfur, Sudan. By the time that he left office, persistent and serious conflict was spreading like fire around the globe and had extended into Ukraine and Syria. The aftermath of wars in countries such as Libya and Iraq manifested itself in civil wars. And while the UN has played a noble and vital role in preventing the outbreak of another global conflict in the years since 1945, in truth its peacekeeping functions have been weakened as multilateralism gave way to unilateralism and old nationalist impulses more attuned to the chaos of the 1930s took hold. 

Donald Trump won his first and second Presidential elections partly on a promise to his MAGA (‘Make America Great Again’) mainly working-class base that he would seek to end wars, rather than drag the US into them. Americans have watched as their tax dollars are poured into weapons for Ukraine, NATO, the hundreds of US bases that ring the globe and of course the various wars that the US gets involved with or instigates. It followed that President Trump thought that he could bring peace to various warring parties and that the UN was an increasing irrelevance. With typical braggadocio he claimed that he would end the Russia/Ukraine war ‘in 24 hours.’ And while he certainly deserves praise for at least attempting to do so, he has notably failed so far. In Gaza there is little doubt that he could end Israel’s bloody war of attrition against mainly civilians ‘in 24 hours’, but here he is in hock to the immensely powerful Israel political, economic and religious lobby and so his extraordinary entreaties for a ‘Gaza Riviera’ have enabled Netanyahu and other extremists in Israel to talk openly of setting up a ‘humanitarian camp’ for up to 600,000 Palestinians to begin with, who could only leave if other countries can be persuaded to have them. The rest of the World, unsurprisingly, sees this latest egregious ethnic cleansing plan as nothing short of being a planned concentration camp. When it comes to Gaza, Trump’s policy is not so much ‘America First’, it is ‘Israel First’.

During the recent India/Pakistan stand-off and conflict which had huge potential for a major war, there is no doubt that Trump and his team did play a key role behind the scenes in defusing the situation. And so, just before Trump launched his bunker busting bombers to tack Iran’s civil nuclear facilities in clear breach of the UN Charter, Pakistan surprised the World by saying that it would be nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. 

Now while it is no secret that President Trump believes that he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for his various global initiatives, what can be exclusively revealed here is that the Pakistan Government nominated Trump only after being asked to do so in a phone call to the Foreign Ministry by Secretary of State Mark Rubio. A smarter way of ingratiating oneself with the boss it is difficult to imagine. The Pakistan nomination, coming as it did from a Muslim country was certainly a significant development, but days later it was eclipsed by Benjamin Netanyahu whose very public commitment to also nominate Trump, very possibly torpedoed any chance of this now happening. The parliamentarians who award the Norwegian Nobel peace prize are no fools and neither are they biddable. Trump will have to try harder.

*Mark Seddon is a former Speechwriter to UN Secretary-General Ban ki moon & former Adviser to the Office of the President of the UN General Assembly