The Trump administration is exceptionally talented and motivated to pursue peace, a goal in line with America First policies, as we end endless foreign wars and refocus inward, building up our economy and domestic production capacity. As I have written previously, pursuing peace has also helped us solidify relationships and allyships with once-unlikely partners. But as we pursue peace, we must also begin to think about the long term. The US must reform the United Nations and the European Union.
As Trump’s latest peace proposal in the Middle East highlights, the US is stepping in for the UN because they have left a gaping hole in world leadership that the US must now fill as the only neutral arbitrator able to bring both Arabs and Jews together without the antisemitism that has discredited the UN as a reliable partner for resolving conflict.
However, the UN is a highly controversial organization and hotly contested around the world for a reason. As we have seen over the past months in the US, mediating global conflicts invites foreign influence operations aimed at the American public in our university systems (some of which existed before and needs to be addressed by Congress) and can cause heightened tensions among an already divided nation.
The US stepping into a long-term role as the world’s mediator is a recipe for disaster, not only due to the internal issues it can cause but also because of the nature of mediation. The fact is that mediation is only effective when the mediating body has the teeth to enforce arbitration decisions, economically, diplomatically, and through force if necessary. This puts America back in the role of the world’s policeman and creates liabilities for us if conflicts and peace treaties do not hold. A role we have arguably never truly left behind, but certainly the Trump administration has made great progress towards transforming expectations about America’s role in the world.
While I understand the conservative distaste for a body that resembles a global government system, the UN and the EU already exist and are the world’s premier groups for mediation, finding consensus on international law, and enforcing decisions with their own coalition forces, with buy-in from the global community. Rather than trying to create a new system or only work with nations who share our world outlook, we need to implement serious reforms to the existing system. And for the neocons in Congress, reform does not mean more funding, as is so often the connotation that accompanies that word. In this case, it actually means withholding funding to create leverage to implement our reforms. As the world’s major funding source for the UN, the US is the only country on earth that has the power to implement true reforms, and we must use it.
As for the EU, the US carries weight in this arena as well, given President Trump’s revelations about how much security and financial burden the US currently carries for our European allies. As much as we wish the Europeans would end their EU experiment, the continent is too weak to survive a political transformation of that magnitude at this time, ironically due to the EU’s insane spending policies and unchecked migration that has hollowed out most of Europe’s major industrial centers and nations with once strong national economies. Europe only works with the EU in place because, frankly, individual nations wouldn’t be able to afford to exist without the support of the collective. We must urge reforms for the EU and help turn it into a forum for resolving conflict and promoting peace rather than funding chaos and decay through uncontrolled migration and climate policy. Trump laid clear these issues in his address to the UN last week.
While I understand that this is a huge undertaking, as the UN is an anti-American, anti-West, Jew and Christian-hating cesspool deeply embroiled in corruption, sexual abuse, and conducting terrorist attacks, a truly America-first policy will include a vision for reforming the UN sooner rather than later. Many past proposals to reform the UN have failed outright, or lost steam in the endless winding trails of bureaucratic nonsense at the UN. However, as the Trump administration pointed out, they have achieved 7 peace deals in 7 months, ending previously unendable conflicts and accomplishing the impossible. There is no reason they can’t attempt the so-called impossible reforms at the UN as well. The administration needs to set up a working group immediately that is solely dedicated to this task. And perhaps assign a separate delegate to the UN who isn’t saddled with the responsibility of security council votes and can focus solely on building coalitions to implement these reforms. The administration took an important first step when State Department employee Dorothy Shea led a campaign to hold the UN accountable for the failures that occurred during President Trump’s UNGA 80 speech and visit. However, one news cycle isn’t nearly enough to get anything meaningful done, and the administration needs to implement a 24-hour-a-day public diplomacy campaign to support the reform effort.
Peace is never wrong to pursue, and American values dictate the importance of sincerely attempting peaceful resolution in global conflict first and foremost. But we must also prepare for the possibility that peace in some conflicts may become a goal out of reach for the US in the future. In a world without a useful mediating body, we cannot let the world fall into chaos, nor can we abandon our own national self-interest while trying to play the role of the UN. So far, we have been able to straddle the line between the pursuit of peace and America First foreign policy, but someday we may not have that luxury. Therefore, it would be irresponsible not to pursue these reforms expeditiously.