'A really MAGA agenda': Is Trump’s Board of Peace meant to interchange the United Nations?

[ad_1] Dozens of world leaders will meet in Washington on Thursday for the inaugural assembly of US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace. First set as much as oversee the Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza and eventual rebuilding of the devastated Palestinian territory, the board’s founding constitution – signed on the World Financial Discussion board's annual assembly in Davos in January – as an alternative outlines a sweeping mandate to pursue peace, stability and “reliable and lawful governance” the world over.

A mission, its preamble makes clear, that requires “the braveness to depart from approaches and establishments which have too typically failed”.

Maybe it’s no shock, then, that some nations have prompt that the board’s chairman – Trump himself – means to make use of it to sideline the beleaguered United Nations in favour of his personal multilateral physique manufactured from a hand-picked membership beneath a hand-picked govt.

Trump's Board of Peace: 'An try to interchange present worldwide establishments just like the UN'

To show this content material from YouTube, you should allow commercial monitoring and viewers measurement.

Settle for Handle my selections Certainly one of your browser extensions appears to be blocking the video participant from loading. To look at this content material, chances are you'll must disable it on this web site.

Strive once more

The board’s brand was revealed on the constitution’s signing: a globe, wreathed in gold, angled to position North America on the centre of the world.

US President Donald Trump speaks throughout a constitution announcement for his Board of Peace initiative on the sidelines of the 56th annual World Financial Discussion board (WEF), in Davos, Switzerland, January 22, 2026. © Jonathan Ernst, Reuters If the board is meant to be a rival to the UN, its founding comes at a foul time. Secretary-Normal Antonio Guterres warned in February that the world physique was going through “imminent monetary collapse” on account of unpaid member dues and funding cuts.

That features almost $4 billion nonetheless owed by the US – greater than 95 p.c of the arrears owed to the UN’s common finances, officers stated. US officers preserve Washington is getting ready to begin paying its arrears within the coming weeks.

On the eve of the inaugural assembly, FRANCE 24 spoke with Alanna O’Malley, the chair of world governance and wealth and historical past division head at Rotterdam’s Erasmus College specialising within the United Nations, decolonisation and the World South.

FRANCE 24: It’s arduous to not comment upon the truth that the increasing position of Trump’s Board of Peace comes at a time when the UN is saying it's going through power funding difficulties, particularly due to unpaid dues from the US. To what extent are we seeing a want from the Trump administration to shift Washington’s assets, each in money and time, away from the UN and in the direction of a brand new multilateral physique beneath everlasting US management?

After all the extra time that’s put into creating an alternate establishment such because the Board of Peace, that’s vitality that the US – each by way of financing but additionally by way of manpower, mental enter, dedication to multilateralism by way of sustaining relationships and lobbying and constructing alliances – that’s all vitality that’s then not put into the UN. So in lots of respects, it does current a elementary problem to the performance of the UN, or the performance of US energy on the UN, due to its divergence from that establishment.

However the UN has been in a declining place globally for fairly a very long time, particularly within the final 5 years. And that has to do with this wider context during which the establishment appears unwilling or unable to reply in a well timed method to main crises of worldwide relations – together with most lately, after all, the Russian aggression in opposition to Ukraine and the disaster in Gaza.

And as that occurred, the fame of the UN will get decrease and decrease and states really feel much less obliged to satisfy their obligatory contributions, as a result of the worth of these modifications as the worth of the UN decreases. On this respect the UN is in a really troublesome place financially as a result of plenty of members simply merely have not paid their dues. After which after all, this places a pressure on the organisation … and it really reduces the efficacy of the UN. It is an exacerbatory impact.

Watch extra Will Trump's 'Board of Peace' in Gaza actually rival the UN?

However I would not learn essentially the Board of Peace as a response to the disaster of the UN. The genesis of this new proposed establishment is sort of totally different – that is very a lot in regards to the MAGA agenda in international coverage. That is very a lot about American energy on the earth. That is a few wider response of america to the aggression of Russia by way of its outlook on the earth, but additionally to the growing political would possibly of China.

You see plenty of discussions now that time to a revival of Nineteenth-century concepts about spheres of affect, and positively Russia and China very a lot see the world like this. So I believe this establishment is the expression of America's flip in the direction of fascinated by spheres of affect. And we see this type of hemispheric rhetoric coming lots out of the Trump administration proper now.

The opposite factor, after all, is that this establishment was proposed as a part of a peace settlement for Gaza, which was authorized by the UN Safety Council. However at the moment, it appeared that it will be restricted to the Gaza disaster, not that it will be expanded into a brand new establishment designed to cope with different crises. That is an effort for the US to embed institutionally their world energy, however in an establishment that serves their functions extra instantly.

A 3rd purpose is way more about Trump's ego. The phrases of his engagement beneath this establishment can be that he can be chairman for all times, and that he would have primarily a veto over all main selections of the establishment. This can be a method for him to ensure a place of what he sees as supremacy in world affairs – even after he's out of workplace within the US. It is very a lot an ego challenge for him. On that foundation, after all, it actually undercuts any precise worth such an establishment might need.

What room, if any, does that depart for any sort of reformist push to revitalise the UN and restore a way of legitimacy or relevance? Or are we going to see a broader sidestepping of the UN in favour of this flip in the direction of spheres of affect?

You must keep in mind that the UN's recognition and energy has waxed and waned over time. This isn't the primary second of disaster in 81 years, and it will not be the final – relying on how lengthy the UN will survive. There are 193 members of the UN, 192 with out the US, and lots of of these different international locations, together with main European states similar to France, such because the UK, similar to Germany and main World South actors similar to South Africa, India, Brazil, Indonesia, stay extraordinarily dedicated to the UN and stay vested in preserving its values and preserving its rules and establishments and methods.

What occurs when main world powers flip away from establishments oftentimes is that it creates way more room for manoeuvre and an influence vacuum inside these buildings. What's crucial now could be that these particularly extra highly effective states are actually forthright about their dedication to UN reform.

Learn extra Trump costs $1 billion for everlasting seat on Gaza ‘Board of Peace’, invitations Russia’s Putin

And that is the step that we've not seen. You have seen plenty of defence of the UN in response to this initiative, and you have seen additionally plenty of these international locations should not going to be members of the Board of Peace. And a few have been downright vital of the creation of one other establishment that may detract from dedication to the UN. And also you see this resurgence all over the world within the worth of multilateralism and dedication to multilateralism, as a result of there appears to be a significant shift within the world order.

And on the centre of that, what we've not seen is these international locations make the subsequent step and truly commit themselves to reform of the UN. Now, there may be this marketing campaign that is ongoing, the Article 109 marketing campaign – article 109 of the UN constitution stipulates {that a} convention for revision of the constitution, to consider reform, ought to really be held each 10 years beneath the UN's personal structure. That is by no means occurred since 1945.

What reforms would you need to see popping out of that convention, ought to it happen?

I would prefer to see much more energy vested within the Normal Meeting [than in the Security Council]. In recent times, particularly within the final ten years, we have seen much more exercise and dynamism from the Normal Meeting, which, to be honest, traditionally has all the time been essentially the most dynamic type of the UN and actually, essentially the most fascinating politically.

The Normal Meeting is absolutely essentially the most correct barometre for the temperature of the worldwide group on any problem. That got here out actually clearly over Gaza, the place you had these huge votes in assist of resolutions on the Gaza disaster and condemning Israel's navy motion.

However in a extra a direct method you additionally noticed the way in which that the Normal Meeting lately can replicate new political tendencies. A kind of was the flip away of many World South international locations from European appeals to assist resolutions on Ukraine, as a result of that displays a wider schism within the North-South relationship. There's been plenty of recourse to attempt to consider doing extra on the Normal Meeting, as a result of the Safety Council is basically deadlocked.

And that is actually the elephant within the room on any dialogue on UN reform. As a result of the subsequent article of the constitution beneath 109, the third premise, is that any reform of the UN constitution must be agreed by all the everlasting 5 members of the Safety Council.

So the query is, how do you get a reform proposal throughout the road and hold the "P-5" joyful? You have received to consider reforming the establishment in a method that does not dilute their energy. And one of many large points is illustration on the Safety Council.

Provided that dynamism, to what extent can we learn the Trump administration’s efforts to arrange the Board of Peace as a response to World South international locations’ growing efforts to advance their very own pursuits by the UN?

It is necessary to grasp that World South international locations have had a majority vote within the Normal Meeting since 1960. They have been utilizing the establishment to advance their pursuits in opposition to vital pushback by the West for a lot of the UN's historical past.

And that is one thing that is not typically featured in histories of the UN and multilateralism, in our understandings of the establishment – it’s typically depicted solely as a Western instrument, whereas really it has been the epicentre for contestations of the liberal world order moderately than the execution of liberal internationalist insurance policies.

That is the context during which World South company must be seen. And that signifies that the World South exercise round multilateralism and across the UN proper now could be the continuity of for much longer patterns of interplay with the establishment.

The US particularly has been annoyed by their efforts to form the agenda on numerous questions over time, additionally as a result of it dilutes their very own affect to a sure extent – as a result of, after all, energy politics are all the time at play in all establishments, not simply within the UN. So it could be a response to elevated World South company.

However to a big extent the US continues to be a significant world associate and has a unique regional relationships with Latin American states after which once more with Asian and Southeast Asian and African states. So I am unsure that their company is such a shock to the US. The one query that the US is absolutely basically squeezed on on the UN is Israel, every part to do with Israel – and that is the place the US has used its veto most frequently on the Safety Council.

It is extra possible that the Board of Peace is being created for these different causes – as a approach to institutionalise US energy beneath Donald Trump, moderately than institutionalise the place of the US on the earth. It is a very MAGA agenda.