Trump Can Win Something Greater Than the Nobel Peace Prize
If the president ends the regimes in Iran and Cuba, he will cripple the global anti-American movement.
ET
Never mind the Nobel Peace Prize. President Trump’s recent international actions could win him a prize of infinitely greater value: becoming the most consequential foreign policy president since Ronald Reagan, strengthening the peace of the world, and making America safer.
The Nobel Peace Prize is a tarnished bauble. It has been bestowed on Yasser Arafat for signing a peace deal he never intended to keep, on Le Duc Tho of North Vietnam for the same reason, on Rigoberta Menchรบ for supposedly advocating for indigenous people (which involved writing a fraudulent book intended to bolster Guatemala’s communist guerrillas), on Barack Obama for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples” (in other words, for not being George W. Bush), on Jimmy Carter for his noble intentions and more of this sort. Would Mr. Trump really be proud to join that company?
Reagan never won the Nobel, but in contrast to Mr. Obama and Carter, he greatly advanced world peace and Americans’ safety by bringing low the Soviet Union’s “evil empire.” Mr. Trump could achieve an analogous triumph if he succeeds in undoing the regime in Iran and perhaps the one in Cuba, too.
America’s nemesis today, and the principal threat to world peace, is harder to define than the Soviet Union and the ideology of communism were in the latter 20th century. But its potential is no less lethal. Many point to China as our emerging adversary, but it isn’t only Beijing we have to worry about. It’s a coalition of aggressive dictatorial states that see U.S. power as a barrier to their self-aggrandizing ambitions and feel that their repressive ways are forever endangered by the freedom America represents. Their goal is to eviscerate the U.S. and deflate the alluring model it presents.
Unlike Soviet communism, which offered a model of its own, the adversary we face today stands for nothing but cutting America down to size. The diplomatic euphemism that trips off the tongues of Russian and Chinese officials is a “multipolar world,” meaning an end to the “unipolar moment” that came about when the Soviet collapse left America supreme.
This goal makes possible an alliance of communist, semicommunist and unrepentant postcommunist countries with Islamist states and movements. It enables atheists who scorn religion as an “opiate” for the masses to find common ground with fanatical fundamentalists. What unites them is their hatred and fear of the U.S.
They spearhead the Brics economic bloc—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, later joined by Iran and others—designed to counter Western economic dominance. It has attempted to create an international reserve currency to challenge the U.S. dollar.
To gain allies and to make things harder for the U.S., Russia and China have used or threatened vetoes in the United Nations Security Council to shield malefactors. They blocked measures to impose sanctions on those linked to the use of chemical weapons and attacks on civilian populations in Syria under the Assad regime. Russia vetoed (and China abstained from) a resolution renewing the panel that monitors North Korean sanctions, in effect blindfolding the U.N. to Pyongyang’s continuing nuclear buildup and testing. Russia and China also vetoed a 2024 U.S. resolution on Gaza because it balanced demands on Israel with criticism of Hamas.
The anti-America coalition crystallized murderously in the Ukraine war, which Vladimir Putin launched following a summit with China’s Xi Jinping. Their communiquรฉ laid on thick their broader anti-American objectives: “redistribution of power in the world,” “multipolarity” and a “polycentric world order.” They also pledged a partnership with “no limits” and “no forbidden areas.”
China has avoided supplying weapons to Russia directly but has provided “dual use” technology, including parts for missiles and drones, as well as intelligence sharing and economic support. As the war has proved much tougher and longer than Mr. Putin anticipated, Russia has also relied heavily on Iran for drones, while North Korea has supplied shells, missiles, rockets and some 15,000 troops.
The downfall of Iran’s regime would blow a gaping hole in this anti-American coalition. It would weaken radical Islam everywhere. Socialism, an idea that had bounced around for nearly a century, became a serious force only when Vladimir Lenin turned Russia into the world’s first socialist state. In much the same way, while the ideology of Islamism gained intellectual followers as the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood promoted it starting in 1928, its full force wasn’t realized until Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini founded the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979. That energized all manner of radicals like al Qaeda, Islamic State, Hamas and Hezbollah. The overthrow of the Islamic Republic would take the wind from the sails of radical Islamists everywhere.
As for Cuba, its global stature has shrunk since the death of the charismatic dictator Fidel Castro. It poses no direct threat to America. Yet it props up and inspires radicals throughout Latin America, such as the half-defunct regime in Venezuela. It remains an enduring symbol of anti-Americanism. Like the Iranians, the people of Cuba, if liberated, would be jubilant and regale the world with tales of their misery under the revolutionary anti-American regime.
For years since the U.S. stumbled in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have been on our back foot, and the forces of anti-Americanism have been gaining strength and confidence. Iran and Cuba present Mr. Trump a chance to reverse that trend. It would be a valuable prize for the country and for him, an honor far nobler than the Nobel.
Mr. Muravchik is author of “Heaven on Earth: The Rise, Fall and Afterlife of Socialism” and of “Making David Into Goliath: How the World Turned Against Israel.”
