During his previous time in office Donald Trump tried his hand at three big-scale international deals which might show what to expect from his 24hr Ukraine peace promise
The North-Korean story started with threats moved to friendly meetings and ended with nothing: today NK has way more nukes than it had back in 17ʼ. His Middle-east effort brought unexpected results - the Abraham Accords came about not because of but despite his teams plans (which focused on West Bank annexation)
The most telling example is the Afghan deal: Trump signed an agreement with Taliban around early-20 that basically gave away US position for almost no real promises in return. The results werenʼt great - Taliban got more control than they had before US came in back in 01
- Quick solutions over careful planning
- No real care for what allies think
- Direct talks with opposing side only
- Simple deals without much detail
Now Russian forces (with help from about 10k NK soldiers) keep moving forward while hitting Ukrainian cities. Putin made it clear many times - he wont take any deal that doesnt give him control over Ukraineʼs future. The question is: what happens when quick-fix approach doesnt work
A rushed deal could make things worse - it might give Xi Jinping ideas about Taiwan encourage Iran and NK‚ and push millions of Ukrainians to leave their homes. But maybe Trump and his team learned from past mistakes: they might decide not to repeat Afghan-style solutions this time round