In the first of a two-part series, the destruction of the US Institute of Peace shows what is lost when decades of conflict-resolution expertise are discarded.

Established by Congress in 1984, with legislation signed by Ronald Reagan and funded annually by Congress, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) was a well-respected, authoritative, independent, officially non-partisan, non-profit organisation, until it was eviscerated by Donald Trump early last year.

Connie Peck

Its purpose was to promote conflict prevention and resolution worldwide and to provide analysis, research and training in diplomacy, mediation and peace-related activities. In 2011, the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs wrote that USIP “helped to build the conflict management and resolution field, both as an area of study and as an applied science”.

The Institute had a staff of 300 professionals; a budget of $55 million; published numerous research reports on peace issues around the world; and trained 65,000 professionals. Although the Institute’s extremely useful database was wantonly destroyed, one can see the breadth and depth of its important work by sampling some of its publications here.

Construction of an impressive $153 million building near the State Department was completed in 2011 but confiscated by the Trump administration in March 2025 with the help of the Institute’s former security vendor, the FBI and the DC Metropolitan Police. A few months later, it was renamed the ‘Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace’ and has since become the home for his ‘Board of Peace’. An account of the events leading to this outcome explains the shameful way in which this was carried out:

One month after assuming office, on 19 February, Trump signed an executive order calling for the elimination of USIP. The next day, USIP was contacted by a representative from the newly established ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (DOGE), set up by Trump under Elon Musk – allegedly to reduce government expenditure, but actually to eliminate institutions that Trump and the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 didn’t like. In a virtual meeting a few days later, USIP’s president/CEO and its lawyer explained to three DOGE representatives that the Institute was an “independent, nonprofit corporation outside the executive branch”.

When, on 8 March, USIP’s president learned that DOGE had inquired about the status of the organisation’s security arrangements, its lawyer contacted DOGE to explain that unauthorised personnel would only be admitted to the building with a valid court-issued warrant.

On 14 March, all Biden-appointed members of USIP’s board of directors were fired by Trump. Three ex-officio members – Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth and Peter Garvin, president of the National Defense University – remained on the board.

The same day, a representative of DOGE and a State Department official arrived at USIP and requested entry, but were denied. That evening, two DOGE members arrived with FBI agents and a directive signed by Rubio, Hegseth, and Garvin to remove the president, naming a new acting president. They were again denied entry, with the USIP lawyer declaring the directive illegal.

The next day, the lawyer learned that two FBI agents had visited the home of USIP’s security vendor to discover how to gain physical entry to its headquarters; it was later reported that they threatened the vendor by warning that, if he didn’t comply, he would lose all government contracts. The lawyer contacted the FBI agents to inform them that all inquiries about USIP should be directed to him. Subsequently, the FBI also contacted USIP’s chief security officer to discuss the Institute’s security procedures and threatened that he was the subject of investigation by the Department of Justice into denied entry.

Later that day, the US attorney for the District of Columbia Criminal Division Chief called the USIP lawyer, requesting access to the headquarters by Rubio and Hegseth to inspect records and books. The lawyer said he would provide access with a written request. The US attorney informed him that there was suspicion that USIP was engaging in criminal behaviour. He also said that representatives would be sent to USIP headquarters the next day and that they would criminally investigate anyone who obstructed access.

USIP then suspended its security vendor’s contract, and its chief security officer deactivated the vendor’s staff badges and retrieved all physical keys except a master. But the next day, four security vendor employees arrived at USIP HQ and attempted to enter the building. They were ultimately admitted, but informed by the lawyer that they were trespassing. The chief security officer called 911 and reported them as intruders.

Armed Metropolitan Police officers then arrived at the USIP HQ and escorted the chief security officer, the USIP lawyer and other staff from the building and turned the building over to DOGE.

Although members of the former board of directors contested the takeover in court, citing the agency’s independent status – and a first court ruled in the Institute’s favour – a federal court of appeals stayed the lower court’s ruling and, after a short reprieve, the building was returned to DOGE, which then took down USIP’s website, containing years of work.

It was later reported that DOGE’s physical occupation of the building led to thousands of dollars in damage, leaving the facility in disarray and littered with drugs and cockroaches.

The building and USIP’s assets were transferred to the General Services Administration and Office of Management and Budget Director, Russell Vought (who was involved in Project 2025) signed off on the transfer. On 3 December 2025, the State Department had the ‘Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace’ inscribed on the outside of the building.

Had Trump and the two men that he has used almost exclusively to deal with certain conflicts around the world – Steve Witkoff, a real estate investor and golfing buddy (whom he has designated as his ‘Special Envoy for the Middle East’) and Jared Kushner, a real estate mogul and son-in-law (who has been given the title ‘Special Envoy for Peace’) – ever read the work of USIP (although reputedly Trump doesn’t read), it would surely have made them better at what they are supposed to be doing – conflict resolution.

None of the three have training in international or inter-group conflict and its resolution. Their experience is based entirely on their real estate backgrounds, where they have engaged in transactional bargaining (called by Trump ’the art of the deal’) on a unidimensional issue to reach financial agreement with regard to a property settlement. Negotiating a comprehensive peace agreement in a complex, intractable inter-group conflict that has grown in intensity and hostility over decades is a totally different skill and entirely outside their realm of expertise.

This kind of multidimensional, complex conflict involves multiple parties and their constituents and requires an in-depth understanding of the historical and contemporary grievances of each and their inter-locking issues. Those who take on this role need to possess the knowledge, experience and skill to design and implement a process that involves all parties in a search for creative options to resolve major interests – including ensuring the parties’ physical, political, economic and cultural security. Only then is there likely to be a basis for building a comprehensive peace agreement that will actually resolve the conflict. This is far different from reaching an agreement for a ceasefire, which is inevitably violated when the underlying conflict is left unresolved.

Trump’s hubris has led him to establish a new organisation, the ‘Board of Peace’, based at the recently renamed ‘Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace’. He has boasted that it could rival the United Nations. But because he lacks the requisite knowledge, the peace process he is trying to bring about in Gaza is currently floundering.

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2026/09/the-danger-of-not-knowing-what-you-dont-know-part-one-how-trump-dismantled-the-us-institute-of-peace/

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