The U.S. Institute of Peace building symbolized conflict resolution. Then DOGE came knocking
The setting of DOGE’s standoff at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) headquarters this past Monday puts these ironies into stark relief. Congress created the think tank in 1984 to “expand and support the existing international peace and conflict resolution efforts” of the U.S. and conduct peace education, training, and research. It is not a government agency. The think tank’s original office was a townhouse that faced Lafayette Park outside the White House. In 2012, Safdie Architects redesigned the headquarters to visually communicate its peace-oriented mission. This week, however, it became a stage for the Trump administration to use the power of the state to enforce its will. An “illegal takeover” DOGE officials entered the USIP building with D.C. police to install new USIP acting president Kenneth Jackson and evict its former acting president and CEO, George Moose, whom Trump fired last week. Moose is challenging his dismissal and the Trump administration’s entry into the building in court. He argues that what happened was an “illegal takeover by elements of the executive branch of a private nonprofit.” Moose told NPR that nonetheless, D.C. police told him he had to leave. “I can’t imagine how our work could align more perfectly with the goals that [President Donald Trump] has outlined: keeping us out of foreign wars, resolving conflicts before they drag us into those kinds of conflicts,” Moose told the Associated Press.Signed into law in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan, the USIP Act established the institute as an independent but federally funded nonprofit with a stated mission to protect U.S. interests abroad and prevent violent conflicts. Like the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the humanitarian aid agency that DOGE already gutted, USIP is a soft power play, created to make friends, influence nations, and protect the U.S.-led world order without resorting to bullets or bombs.A building designed for peace and interaction The USIP headquarters, designed by Safdie Architects, opened in 2012 and stands out in a city defined by neoclassical and brutalist architecture, particularly at a time when Trump is attempting through executive order to standardize federal architecture as “traditional and classical.” The building is adjacent to the National Mall, and its location near U.S. war memorials was meant to be symbolic, “as a living monument that embodies and reflects America’s commitment to peace,” USIP says. Safdie Architects refers to the building on its website as a “national symbol of peace on the Capitol’s skyline.” The building’s open atria were designed to encourage interaction, Safdie Architects says, awash in daylight thanks to floor-to-ceiling windows and a domed, glass roof designed to mirror the dome of the Jefferson Memorial. The facade is a blend of blocky brutalism with the tall, contemporary window wall and domed roof in the center. It’s the first building on the National Mall to be LEED-certified Gold, a certification given to sustainably designed buildings. As an independent think tank, USIP built its headquarters through a public-private partnership that included private donations. If your physical surroundings determine your work performance, then the USIP headquarters was designed to inspire with light, transparency, openness, and imagination. Those values were overshadowed by the Trump administration’s entry and takeover. A building designed to reflect a commitment to peace instead became a stage for a confrontation over power.
