By Dr Majid Khan (Melbourne):
As Donald J. Trump resumes the Oval Office in 2025, his second tenure as the 47th President of the United States is already shaping up as an assertive continuation of the disruptive diplomacy that defined his first term. From forging peace pacts in the Middle East to recalibrating relations with adversarial states like Russia and North Korea, Trump has positioned himself as a president unafraid to challenge diplomatic orthodoxy, often with seismic global effects.
While critics question the sustainability of his methods, Trump’s supporters hail his ability to move stagnant geopolitical conflicts toward negotiation tables. This retrospective analysis explores the former and current president’s imprint on global peace efforts, tracing key milestones in U.S. foreign policy from his return to office in 2025 back to the foundation laid during his first term beginning in 2017.
With Trump’s return to the White House, familiar rhetoric has resurfaced. “Peace through strength” has again become the guiding maxim. However, in the context of 2025’s fluid geopolitical landscape, Trump’s renewed mandate carries a sharper focus on closing open-ended conflicts and brokering what he calls “real deals” in troubled regions.
Topping his second-term foreign policy docket is the Russia-Ukraine war. Within weeks of taking office, Trump held phone conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Declaring, “This war should never have started — and it ends now,” Trump announced a peace proposal favoring neutrality for Ukraine and limited NATO entanglement.
While the proposal drew fire for allegedly legitimizing Russian territorial gains, Trump defended it as a “realistic framework” to end bloodshed. Talks in Istanbul, brokered by his emissaries, were launched under a strict timeline, a classic Trump tactic designed to exert pressure. His insistence on conditionality and deadlines echoes his broader diplomatic style: transactional, high-stakes, and press-driven.
Middle East
Arguably, no legacy looms larger than the Abraham Accords. Originally signed in 2020, these normalization agreements between Israel and Arab nations such as the UAE and Bahrain now serve as the cornerstone of Trump’s Middle East strategy.
Back in the region this May, Trump personally lobbied Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to join the accords, calling it “the final piece in the regional peace puzzle.” Additionally, his unprecedented meeting with Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa marked the administration’s first direct overture toward Damascus since the civil war began.
“Normalization is the path forward,” Trump told reporters in Riyadh. “A strong, united Middle East doesn’t need outside wars.”
Diplomatic insiders describe these efforts as “Abraham Accords 2.0”, aimed at building a regional bloc against Iranian influence while incentivizing economic cooperation.
Afghanistan and Iraq
Trump’s initial exit strategy from Afghanistan was codified in the February 2020 Doha Agreement, which set a timetable for full U.S. withdrawal. Though the final pullout was executed during the Biden administration and met with chaos, Trump has repeatedly asserted that his framework would have ensured a “dignified exit without collapse.”
In Iraq, he oversaw troop reductions while reinforcing counterterrorism collaboration with Baghdad. “No more forever wars,” he declared, summarizing a policy of calculated disengagement while retaining strike capabilities against resurgent terror cells.
South Asia
Trump’s diplomatic outreach in South Asia remains underreported but consequential. In 2025, he reiterated claims of helping avert conflict between India and Pakistan, linking trade incentives to peace initiatives. His remark — “Talked trade, stopped them from fighting” — sparked both praise and skepticism.
The U.S. Commerce Secretary later testified that trade leverage had indeed played a role in defusing tensions during a border standoff, crediting Trump’s hands-on involvement.
Though no formal treaty emerged, the Trump White House facilitated backchannel diplomacy that contributed to a fragile but ongoing ceasefire between the nuclear rivals.
North Korea
Trump’s engagement with Pyongyang began with saber-rattling and culminated in history-making summits. His meetings with Kim Jong-un in Singapore (2018) and Hanoi (2019) marked the first time a sitting U.S. president met with a North Korean leader. Although denuclearization goals remained elusive, the summits dialed down regional tension and shifted the narrative from hostility to cautious engagement.
In 2025, Trump has expressed interest in reactivating the North Korea channel, citing his personal rapport with Kim. “No one else got them to the table. We did,” he noted during a Fox News interview this April.
Analysts remain divided — some see potential for renewed diplomacy; others view it as a stalled enterprise repackaged for headlines.
Syria
Trump’s evolving stance on Syria reflects a pragmatic pivot. In his first term, he ordered targeted airstrikes following a chemical attack but resisted full-scale intervention. “We hit them hard and got out,” he said in 2017, framing it as a warning shot rather than a shift in doctrine.
Now, in a rare move, Trump is openly engaging with Syrian authorities. His 2025 meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa marked the first U.S. overture toward reestablishing diplomatic channels — possibly a precursor to re-integrating Syria into the Arab fold under the umbrella of the Abraham Accords.
Though sanctions remain in place, Trump’s rhetoric signals a softening posture, especially if Syria cooperates on counterterrorism and distances itself from Iranian proxies.
Trump’s unorthodox diplomacy began even before he assumed office. During the 2016 campaign, he floated the idea of thawing relations with Russia; a stance that would shadow his presidency and fuel controversy. Despite internal resistance, he pursued summit diplomacy, most notably with Putin in Helsinki in 2018, arguing: “It’s better to talk than to escalate.”
In 2018, he relocated the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, drawing widespread condemnation but also paving the way for the Abraham Accords by realigning U.S.-Israel policy as a fixed constant.
Whether revered as a peacemaker or reviled as a disruptor, Donald Trump’s global footprint is indelible. His foreign policy has upended diplomatic norms, emphasizing leader-to-leader rapport, economic bargaining chips, and deal-centric diplomacy over institutional processes.
Critics argue that this approach risks short-term gains at the cost of long-term stability. Supporters counter that Trump’s methods broke impasses others had failed to touch. As Trump often states, “You don’t make peace by sitting on your hands.”
In a world increasingly defined by multipolar tensions and realpolitik, Trump’s presidency, past and present; offers a case study in how unorthodox diplomacy can, at times, yield unexpected and lasting results.
