Trump’s ‘Peace Board’ gets UN legitimacy, an agency it regularly disparages
Donald Trump’s “Peace Board”. It sounds like an imaginary superagency that playboys might dream of, sending real agents to bring peace to troubled parts of the world.
Or even a board game. In both cases, the rules are groundless.
“Once this board is fully formed, we can do pretty much anything we want to do,” said the US president this week in Davos, Switzerland, when he introduced his newly appointed members to the board at the World Economic Forum.
Membership is by invitation only, and if a country wants a permanent seat at the table, the price tag is $1 billion US. Otherwise, the terms will last three years, or at the pleasure of the chairman for life, Donald Trump.
He has already stumbled upon his “fired” skill. Studentusing social media to inform Prime Minister Mark Carney that his invitation has been withdrawn.
‘I don’t think Trump has much respect for the UN’
So far, about 30 countries from Bulgaria to Belarus have signed on to a board that critics say is Trump’s bid to create an alternative to the United Nations.
“I don’t think Trump has a lot of respect for the UN. Or again, the norms and rules that were created after 1945, because every step of the way [he] he’s trying to ignore you and do the other way he says,” said Yossi Mekelberg, a fellow at the London-based think tank Chatham House.
Earlier this month, the White House moved to withdraw, and freeze funding, 31 UN agencies.
In Davos, Trump said the Peace Council would work “in partnership” with the UN. He also said “it can spread to other places.”
“I think what you’re seeing is a board put together on Gaza that has big ambitions,” said Shashank Joshi, the Economist’s defense editor, “but with a lot of skills and a pool of people that’s very focused on the Middle East, and I think it’s not as relevant to problems outside that region.”
Invitations to join the board reportedly describe it as a “soft and active international peace-building organization,” widely interpreted as a swipe at the UN.
But Trump’s board owes its authority to UN Security Council Resolution 2803, which in November endorsed his 20-point plan to end the conflict in Gaza, including the creation of a monitoring board.
“The US wanted to gain international legitimacy from the UN, while trying to keep the UN’s influence and operational control as small as possible,” Marc Weller, Chatham House program director for international law, wrote at the time.
Only two EU countries have signed
The leaked details of the board’s charter make no mention of Gaza, although several key Middle Eastern countries that support the Palestinian state have signed it, including Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
And despite being tasked with rebuilding Gaza, there are no Palestinians on the Peace Board. And they are not on the top board that sits below it. Palestinian representation is confined to a lower body called the Gaza National Management Committee, made up of experts to be overseen by the Peace Board.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who does not support a Palestinian state, was offered and accepted a seat on the board. He did not go to Davos, apparently, because of a warrant for his arrest by the International Court of Justice for war crimes.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who also received an ICC arrest warrant, is reportedly considering his invitation.
At that time, only two European Union countries signed: Bulgaria and Hungary.
Britain’s foreign secretary cited Putin’s invitation as one of the reasons why the UK is holding back. France refused, saying the board’s charter contradicted that of the UN – despite threats from Trump to slap a 200 percent tariff on French wine.
The Economist’s Joshi said the destruction of the UN would be a red line for many nations, including those in the Global South.
“Yes, the UN has very big problems. But I think that does not mean that the people of Europe [and] many others – in South America, for example – want to see a world where the White House, where Trump, where the American people gain immeasurable power through these types of decisions. “
US President Donald Trump launched his ‘Peace Board’ with the first goal of rebuilding Gaza. The 35 signatories include regional powers in the Middle East such as Israel, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, but traditional US allies have been wary of joining.
Joshi thinks that the Peace Board may actually work to strengthen the United Nations.
“This is not just a competition that the US can organize itself and say, ‘I’m done with the UN, it’s over.’ The Chinese will continue to play this game. Powerful developing countries like Brazil and India will be involved in the UN, and will seek to influence its agencies and bodies more as the US backs away. “
If it happens.
Given all the windfalls and contradictions and confusion, it’s tempting to dismiss Trump’s campaign as a distraction or a plot designed to boost the president’s ego.
But it also has the power to conform to the body Trump therefore insults regularly. It mandates the UN resolution that gave Trump and his board the lead to the incomplete, but much-needed, ceasefire that now exists in Gaza – and a leading role in future measures.
And as weak and ineffective as Trump always says the UN is, the United States still uses one of its most powerful institutional tools – the veto – to make the rules of the game even more difficult.
The US has used it to block UN Security Council resolutions to cease fighting in Gaza six times since the conflict began in October 2023.
