U.S. President Donald Trump’s launch of the Board of Peace on the World Financial Discussion board in Davos, Switzerland, final week has been condemned as an imperial undertaking and mocked for the motley crew that it attracted. But the derision can’t masks the geopolitical audacity of the initiative. Whether or not or not it succeeds, Trump’s Board of Peace already quantities to probably the most sweeping try to switch—if not supplant—the worldwide order established in 1945. In contrast to the various rhetorical assaults on the United Nations over the many years, Trump has produced a format and potential establishment that might sooner or later rival the U.N.
The Board of Peace started as a mechanism with a restricted mandate to advertise peace and reconstruction in Gaza following its pummeling by Israel after the brutal Hamas assault of October 2023. Final November, U.N. Safety Council Decision 2803 licensed Trump personally to guide this board. Trump has boldly expanded that mandate to cowl peace and safety past Gaza. He has not bothered to disclaim the rising accusations that his actual aim is to marginalize the Safety Council itself.
Given the sweeping ambition of Trump’s board, one might need anticipated the BRICS discussion board—the self-appointed vanguard of anti-hegemonic politics and the champion of the worldwide south—to rain fireplace on the U.S. president. However the BRICS turned out to be the lion that didn’t roar. As a substitute of confronting Trump, lots of its members and aspirants have facilitated his undertaking by both quietly becoming a member of or wanting the opposite method.
The Board of Peace is structured round a strong government chair—Trump himself—with management over its membership and veto energy over its insurance policies. He holds this place for all times, not simply qua the U.S. presidential workplace. The board additionally gives for a tiered membership system. Regular membership lasts for 3 years; a everlasting seat may be purchased for $1 billion.
Trump invited almost 60 nations on the Davos launch; about 25—together with Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates—have signed on. A handful of European outliers—Hungary, Bulgaria, and Belarus—additionally embraced the board. The presence of Egypt, Indonesia, and the UAE—three new BRICS+ members—was putting. Saudi Arabia, an invitee to BRICS however not but a proper member, joined as nicely. Argentina, which rejected BRICS membership underneath President Javier Milei, turned up at Davos to align itself with Trump’s new order.
Among the many unique BRICS members, South Africa was not invited. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva rejected Trump’s invitation, calling the board an try “to create a brand new U.N. by which he, alone, is the proprietor.” Lula referred to as Chinese language President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging tighter BRICS coordination and warning that Trump’s board “threatens multipolarity and institutional multilateralism.” Lula’s activism underscored Brazil’s discomfort, however he failed to provide a united BRICS response.
China, too, provided ritual criticism however prevented escalation. A Overseas Ministry spokesperson mentioned that “China will firmly safeguard the worldwide system with the U.N. at its core.” The tone was unusually gentle, reflecting China’s reluctance to impress Trump at a second of tariff strain and pending commerce negotiations.
India, for its half, neither accepted nor rejected the invitation. Delhi has sufficient issues with Trump—from tariffs to his meddling within the battle with Islamabad—and sees no worth in publicly antagonizing him. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sturdy causes to remain out. Had the board remained restricted to Gaza, he might need discovered room to take part. However as soon as Trump expanded the mandate to international peace and battle decision, India fearful—fairly—that it would sooner or later discover itself the goal of Trump’s activism.
This concern isn’t about Kashmir per se. It stems from Trump’s personal repeated claims that he stopped the India-Pakistan battle in Could 2025 and his reported eagerness to advertise a grand peace between New Delhi and Islamabad. The Indian political class is all however united in rejecting exterior mediation—not to mention by Trump—to resolve its battle with Pakistan.
Russia’s response was probably the most curious. President Vladimir Putin mentioned that Moscow would “research” the proposal and “seek the advice of with our strategic companions,” including that Russia might contribute $1 billion in frozen Russian property to the brand new board—a comment interpreted as feigned curiosity slightly than enthusiasm. However there is no such thing as a mistaking Putin’s reluctance to problem Trump’s try to undermine the U.N. This have to be slightly painful for Putin, who views Russia’s position in constructing the post-World Battle II order with america and centered across the United Nations as sacred.
Even stranger was the choice of Belarus—Moscow’s closest ally—to hitch the board. Whether or not President Aleksandr Lukashenko secured the Kremlin’s quiet acquiescence or acted independently stays unclear. Vietnam, one other sudden signatory, displays one more sample. A communist state near each Russia and China, Vietnam has amassed a large commerce surplus with america and is determined to keep away from turning into a goal of Trump’s tariff diplomacy.
In Asia, most U.S. allies—together with Japan, South Korea, and Australia—stayed away. However Indonesia, lengthy a number one voice of the Non-Aligned Motion and the anchor of the Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations, turned an enthusiastic early backer. Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto defended becoming a member of the board by invoking its unique goal of bringing peace to the folks of Gaza. Prabowo additionally insisted that sitting alongside Israel in a conflict-resolution physique was essential to safe aid and reconstruction. His remarks signaled Jakarta’s pragmatic shift from ideologically pushed postures on the Palestinians prior to now to transactional alignment with Washington.
Indonesia’s flip was a part of the broader sample within the elements of the Islamic world that actively facilitated Trump’s Board of Peace. In September 2025, a joint declaration by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Indonesia, and Pakistan signaled a unprecedented shift. In the assertion, their leaders affirmed “their dedication to cooperate with President Trump, and confused the significance of his management to finish the battle and open horizons for a simply and lasting peace.” It represents an acknowledgment that neither the U.N.’s efforts nor the Islamic world’s ritualized expressions of assist have come near delivering outcomes.
By legitimizing U.S.-led conflict-management buildings, this declaration by Islamic nations paved the political floor for the Safety Council to approve Trump’s Board of Peace in November. Decision 2803 licensed Trump to coordinate Gaza’s cease-fire, aid supply, and reconstruction by means of a particular worldwide mechanism reporting to the Safety Council. It granted him broad latitude to nominate groups, elevate funds, and have interaction regional actors. Though framed as short-term, the decision successfully outsourced U.N. authority to a single particular person.
The decision handed unanimously—its significance buried within the diplomatic niceties. Russia and China abstained, enabling the decision with out endorsing it. Britain and France voted for it. Europe’s nonpermanent members on the time—Denmark, Greece, Slovenia—additionally supported it. But none of them signed the board constitution in Davos. The Europeans had clearly misjudged Washington’s plans for the board past the Gaza concern.
The nonpermanent non-Western nations within the Safety Council—Algeria, Guyana, Pakistan, Panama, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and South Korea—additionally voted in favor. Most mentioned they did so out of humanitarian urgency. No matter their motivations, the second could be remembered as the primary time that the Safety Council ceded its core mandate—peace and safety on the planet—to 1 man.
May this develop into the Safety Council’s obituary? Trump’s U.N. mandate expires on the finish of 2027. Russia and China might veto any renewal, however by then, the board might need acquired institutional momentum, different legitimacy, and monetary autonomy. And lengthy earlier than that, it has uncovered the fragility of a number of assumptions which can be trendy in international politics.
First, the so-called international south—supposedly united in anger at Israel’s marketing campaign in Gaza—ended up supporting a decision that eliminated strain on Israel and gave Palestinians little say in governing Gaza’s future. When pressured to decide on between ethical posturing and geopolitical entry, the main states of the worldwide south opted for affect inside a U.S.-led construction.
Second, the BRICS—celebrated because the vanguard of the post-American international order—has been unable to stop its members from backing Trump’s new group, which violates lots of BRICS’ core rules. The bloc’s 2024-25 growth, broadly hailed as transformative, has as an alternative accelerated incoherence. Removed from counterbalancing america, the expanded BRICS has revealed itself as a unfastened and shaky coalition of states with divergent priorities and overlapping vulnerabilities. If these states have one factor in frequent, it’s the significance they connect to continued bilateral engagement with Washington.
Lastly, Trump’s Board of Peace underscores a deeper fact: The worldwide order is formed not by slogans of solidarity or pious reward of multilateralism, however by the calculus of nationwide curiosity. No matter one may consider Trump’s tough and prepared strategies, he has proven the capability to interrupt out of previous paradigms.
The prospects for the Board of Peace depend upon Trump’s political fortunes and the sturdiness of his impression on U.S. international and safety insurance policies. However one factor is already clear: The parable of a united international south resisting U.S. hegemony underneath China’s and Russia’s management has melted away in Davos. And the BRICS wall, hailed because the bulwark towards U.S. hegemony, is revealing main cracks.
