The business of peace requires more than showing up with paint brushes, foodstuffs and an oil pipeline or two.

Snow’s line frames “peace” as an active, demanding enterprise rather than a photo-op or a purely material reconstruction project. By listing “paint brushes” and “foodstuffs,” he evokes humanitarian relief and cosmetic rebuilding; by adding “an oil pipeline or two,” he hints at the suspicion that strategic or commercial interests can masquerade as benevolence. The thrust is that durable peace depends on political legitimacy, security, institutions, and trust—things that cannot be delivered simply by supplies, infrastructure, or symbolic gestures. The quote also carries a warning about credibility: if reconstruction is perceived as self-interested, it may undermine the very stability it aims to create.