Throughout his 2024 campaign for the presidency, Donald Trump made diplomatic resolution of the Ukraine-Russia war a major priority, suggesting that he could bring peace within '24 hours.' Even before Trump resumed office in January 2025, as president-elect he named envoys and held preliminary discussions with a variety of leaders. How does Trump's mediation effort stack up historically' I'm a scholar of the presidency, and while we don't yet know the outcome of the Trump-led negotiations, we do know one thing: He's not conducting them in the ways presidents ' including Trump himself ' have conducted them in the past. Theodore Roosevelt: Roosevelt won a Nobel Peace Prize for his contributions to ending the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War, fought over control of Manchuria and Sakhalin Island. Roosevelt had been asked to mediate by Japan, and Russia agreed. In many ways, this episode marked the beginning of the role of the U.S. president as a world leader. Jimmy Carter: Carter's greatest...
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