Trump's 'Board of Peace' would have global scope but one man in charge

Washington -- In the proposed charter of the "Board of Peace" that the United States sent to national capitals in recent weeks, one man has the power to veto decisions, approve the agenda, invite members, dissolve the board entirely and designate his own successor.

His name is spelled out in Article 3.2: "Donald J. Trump shall serve as inaugural chairman."

"If Trump, then peace," Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, one of Trump's closest allies in Europe, wrote on Facebook on Sunday after Trump invited him to join the board. "We have, of course, accepted this honorable invitation."

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, Belarus, Pakistan and several more countries also said they were joining, before a signing ceremony planned for Thursday in Switzerland.

But many officials and experts in international affairs were stunned by the breadth of the initiative, the latest example of Trump taking apart the American-built, post-World War II international system and building a new one, with himself at the center.

"This is a direct assault on the United Nations," said Marc Weller, a Cambridge international law professor who specializes in peace negotiations and has worked closely with the global body. "This initiative is likely to be seen as a takeover of the world order by one individual in his own image."

The U.N. Security Council itself endorsed the creation of a Board of Peace in November in a resolution welcoming the U.S.-brokered peace plan to end Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. According to that resolution, the board is to function as a "transitional administration" through 2027 to oversee the redevelopment of Gaza.

But in unveiling the Board of Peace in the last week, the Trump administration has cast Gaza as only a part of what the new institution would do. While its powers are not defined, its mission would overlap with the United Nations' aim of maintaining international peace and security.

"Trump has proven himself a pretty capable and aggressive leader," said Fred Fleitz, the chief of staff of the National Security Council for part of Trump's first term. "This is taking advantage of it."

The proposed charter, seen by The New York Times, says the board would seek to "secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict."

Steve Witkoff, Trump's peace envoy, who was named as a member of the group's "executive board," told CNBC that more than 20 countries had already agreed to join and that the Board of Peace would be "a great group of leaders coming together" in "sharing opinion to achieve peace." He listed Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Sudan and Syria as among the places in need of "bridging relationships."

"I wish the United Nations could do more," Trump said Tuesday. "I wish we didn't need a Board of Peace."

Asked whether he wanted the board to replace the United Nations, Trump said that it "might." He added: "I believe you got to let the U.N. continue because the potential is so great."

The United Nations itself has sought to play down any tensions. A spokesperson, Farhan Haq, told reporters that the U.N. "has coexisted alongside any number of organizations."

But the Trump administration's ambiguous messaging about the Board of Peace has added to the head-spinning nature of an extraordinary January in American foreign policy. The U.S. attack on Venezuela, the threats of strikes on Iran and Trump's demands to take over Greenland have all sent the message that the United States is seeking to exert its global power in a newly unilateral way.

The Board of Peace, with its sprawling mission and with Trump as its long-term chair, appeared to be an attempt at building an institution to codify the American dominance that the president envisions. Norway, Sweden and France have already said they do not intend to join. The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said his country would say "no to creating an organization as it has been presented, which would replace the United Nations," according to The Associated Press.

"The bond of trust has been broken" between the United States and its allies, said R. Nicholas Burns, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, China and elsewhere. "The overreach by the administration on Greenland and the miscalculation they have made has really brought about a different European view and Canadian view."

Two weeks ago, Trump withdrew from 66 international organizations that his administration deemed "wasteful, ineffective, and harmful." He has suggested that he sees his board filling some of that vacuum -- offering the world a more assertive brand of American engagement, personified by Trump.

The Board of Peace "will be established as a new international organization," Trump wrote in his letter to Orban, which the Hungarian prime minister posted online. The organization's charter says in its opening line that "durable peace" requires "the courage to depart from approaches and institutions that have too often failed."

Fleitz, who is now at the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank close to the administration, said the decision to include Russia and China among the invited members reflected the intended "broad-based" nature of the board.

"They want to reduce the possibility that various countries will try to sabotage it," he said.

Russia and China have veto power on the U.N. Security Council, so they would be likely to look askance at any weakening of the body. But both have also tried to curry favor with Trump.

China has said it was invited but not whether it would accept. President Vladimir Putin of Russia also stopped short of accepting the invitation, saying his foreign ministry needed to analyze the matter. But in an example of how countries can try to use Trump's ambitions to advance their own interests, Putin added that Russia was prepared to contribute $1 billion to the board -- as long as the money comes out of the Russian assets that were frozen in the West after Putin invaded Ukraine.

The draft charter for the board stipulates the $1 billion fee for countries that seek to stay on for longer than a three-year term. A U.S. official said Tuesday that the board "will implement the highest financial controls and oversight mechanisms" for the cash it collects, and that "funds will sit only in approved accounts at reputable banks."

The U.S. official confirmed that Trump could play a central role in the board even after leaving the presidency. Trump can hold the chair "until he resigns it," the official said. "A future U.S. president, however, may choose to appoint or designate the United States' representative to the board."

Weller, the peace negotiations specialist, argued that the expected $1 billion contributions could further sap funding from the U.N., whose agencies were told by the United States in December that they needed to "adapt, shrink or die."

And he said that the central personal role envisioned for Trump was unlike any other agreement he had seen in his experience in international affairs. It was, he said, unlikely to represent a sustainable pathway to world peace.

"Peace in the world requires a broad, international consensus," Weller said. "That can hardly be created through a new institution that is entirely dependent on the will of one man."