It’s the holiday season, which is an ideal occasion to remind readers of the importance of peace and the steps that we should take to make it more widespread and enduring. I’ve observed before that recent U.S. leaders have talked less about peace than they should’ve (and less than their predecessors did), which is surprising given the United States’ broad interest in a more peaceful world.

U.S. President Donald Trump is something of an exception in this regard. He does talk a lot about peace, mostly to insist that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize (in addition to that bizarre award recently conferred on him by FIFA head Gianni Infantino). He has claimed to have ended at least eight wars; unfortunately, that assertion is about as accurate as the idea that “Trump University” was a good place to get an education. Instead of a genuine end to conflict, Trump’s specialty is a Potemkin peace plan—a symbolic “agreement” proclaimed with great fanfare that soon collapses.

It’s the holiday season, which is an ideal occasion to remind readers of the importance of peace and the steps that we should take to make it more widespread and enduring. I’ve observed before that recent U.S. leaders have talked less about peace than they should’ve (and less than their predecessors did), which is surprising given the United States’ broad interest in a more peaceful world.

U.S. President Donald Trump is something of an exception in this regard. He does talk a lot about peace, mostly to insist that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize (in addition to that bizarre award recently conferred on him by FIFA head Gianni Infantino). He has claimed to have ended at least eight wars; unfortunately, that assertion is about as accurate as the idea that “Trump University” was a good place to get an education. Instead of a genuine end to conflict, Trump’s specialty is a Potemkin peace plan—a symbolic “agreement” proclaimed with great fanfare that soon collapses.

In Gaza, for example, the 20-point peace plan—a package that Trump hailed as “not only the end of a war, this is the........

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