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U.S. Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s push to re­name the De­part­ment of De­fense goes be­yond sub­jec­tive word choic­es about whether to change a name that’s been in place since 1949.

On one hand is Trump’s ar­gu­ment that the his­tor­i­cal name – War De­part­ment – more plain­ly re­flects the bot­tom-line mis­sion. Yet the idea, which still re­quires ac­tion by Con­gress, al­so would con­tin­ue Trump’s flout­ing of the in­ter­na­tion­al or­der es­tab­lished af­ter World War II.

And, be­sides high­light­ing the pres­i­dent’s brand­ing pro­cliv­i­ties, the is­sue ex­pos­es ten­sions be­tween Trump’s and many of his pre­de­ces­sors’ plat­i­tudes about peace even as the U.S. has spent much of its ex­is­tence on bat­tle­fields.