Board of Peace?

A few years ago, I wrote in a piece (Can NATO Still Make America Great?—8/28/2017) about the future of NATO that if the trumpists were successful in discarding NATO, it would be replaced with something designed to enhance US control over the world, not some body that would create a more balanced, more just balance of global power. I closed the essay with these words:

Despite the interconnectedness of the world capitalist economy, the nation-state is not dead. In fact, it seems to be experiencing a rebirth in this second decade of the twenty-first century. The Russian assertion of its territorial and national aspirations, the British exit from the European Union, the rise of nationalist political parties, and the occupancy of the US White House by “America-First” Donald Trump are all indicators of this. Donald Trump’s campaign promise to “make America great again” certainly included the maintenance and expansion of the US Empire. This remains true no matter what his isolationist supporters might hope. That being so, the question then is not whether the US military will be stationed around the world, including in the NATO countries, but under what guise that presence will be maintained. Will NATO continue to be the military vehicle for the Empire in Europe and elsewhere or will Trump and his group of imperial bureaucrats come up with a different model to accomplish a similar end? In other words, will they re-invent the wheel if that wheel is still functioning how it was designed to function? No matter what happens—and at this writing it looks like NATO will remain—Washington’s drive for world hegemony in Europe and beyond will continue.

As I write this, Donald Trump is in Davos, Switzerland conniving to get governments to sign on to his so-called Board of Peace. This board was originally intended to apply only to Gaza, but has metamorphosized into something considerably grander that its designers hope to turn into an international institution. Besides the one billion dollar per signature cost of Trump’s somewhat cartoon-like attempt to take over the work of the United Nations—work that has been short-circuited by the United States and Israel so many times the institution of the UN has become laughable—Trump’s plan remains quite unclear as to its construction. However, its intent seems pretty clear: to place the United States and its economic interests at the undisputed top of the capitalist food chain. For those who thought “America First” meant an isolationist type of retreat from US manipulation of nations and their economies through trade and military actions this negates their illusions. Indeed, in the tradition of colonial and imperial empires of the past, this trumpist vision, if enacted, would mirror empires like those of the European nations in centuries past, especially that of Britain. No pretense of a community of nations like that called for in the UN Charter is included in this vision. The Empire and the nation are the same. Trump and his minions, via the power vested in him (and that grabbed by him since January 2025), would rule like the kings and queens of the old Empire when Victoria was Empress of India and those they called coolies carried fat men in uniforms around in fancy chairs.

Recently, the world has watched the US military violate a number of long-held rules of war and historical conventions in its attacks on civilian boats in the Caribbean and the kidnapping of Venezuela’s president and his partner. Washington’s primary client state/ally in the world—Israel—has gone even further in destroying these rules and conventions in its ongoing slaughter of Palestinians. As most everyone acknowledges, Washington’s collusion in that slaughter is essential to the magnitude of its violence. The occupation which the slaughter is part and parcel of has been in violation of international law and UN conventions since its beginning. Indeed, the establishment of Israel by the United Nations in 1948 disregarded the right of the indigenous Palestinian population to self-determination, which is considered a jus cogens (fundamental) norm. I could continue the litany of US violations of the UN charter and other international conventions it agreed to; that list would stretch from Vietnam to Iraq, Chile to South Africa and even inside the United States in its oppression of Black US citizens, immigrants and its indigenous peoples. However, I believe the point has been made regarding Washington’s rejection to rules that don’t serve its hegemonic agenda.

As for that agenda, this trumpist board of peace is potentially the next step. Depending on how successful Trump and his cohorts are in convincing other rulers to sign on, it could weaken the United Nations even further. Such an occurrence would be welcomed by the United States, which has found it more and more difficult to abide by the institution’s charter, especially as Washington’s place in the world is challenged by other nations seeking economic stability and advancement. From the war on Yugoslavia under Bill Clinton to the serial rejections since 2023 of ceasefire proposals in Gaza and up to the most recent threats against Greenland by Donald Trump, it’s clear that the United States would have no real problem if the UN became even less powerful and something like Trump’s “Board of Peace” became the new vehicle of Washington’s agenda.

But what about the Democrats, the reader might ask. In case you missed it, Bill Clinton was the ruler who sent US warplanes over the disintegrating nation of Yugoslavia, bombing civilians, cities, trains, hospitals, media offices and more. That offensive was not done under the auspices of the UN, but through NATO. This was an intentional rejection of the UN and its internationally inclusive approach to errant members. This action was not much different from the Trump administration’s recent attacks in the Caribbean or its bombing of Iran in June 2025. In all of these instances, the UN was rendered mostly irrelevant, in large part because of Washington’s desire to do what it wants as regards threats to its hegemonic schemes. If Trump’s so-called Board of Peace becomes reality, it’s pretty sure money that any Democratic administration in the US’s future would accede to its continuation, having realized the fact that it made the bipartisan project of US imperialism that much easier. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that no Democrat wants to be an Emperor.

This plan is not about bringing peace to the world, but to colonize it for the United States. That can only be done via sanctions, military aggression and threats thereof. The fact that the military budget for the United States stands at a trillion dollars for the current fiscal year while Trump and others call for it to be increased by another half a trillion in the next year is more than just a victory for the war industry. It’s also an indication that the architects of the US drive for world hegemony represented by this (US-created) Board of Peace understand that their plan is likely to be bloodier than anything we’ve seen in a while. Of course, just because the far-right in the United States hopes to see the scenario outlined here become fact, that doesn’t mean it will. Already, rulers of other nations are accepting that the future will look different than the world order constructed in the wake of World War Two. Indeed, that is the underlying meaning of Canadian PM Carney’s speech to the same forum at Davos. The understanding that binds Carney’s speech and Trump’s is an understanding that capitalism and US imperialism are facing challenges they haven’t faced in such an obvious way before. If anything, the next phase of the capitalist calendar is likely to be even worse for those who are in its way. Our one chance is resistance.

The post Board of Peace? appeared first on CounterPunch.org.