Editorial: Trump’s Gaza ‘Board of Peace’ undermines the UN

If the Gaza initiative focuses more on optics than meaningful action, it risks becoming another failed plan, collapsing under the harsh realities on the ground and threatening the authority of the United Nations

United States President Donald Trump is bent upon resetting the world order to establish America’s hegemony and replacing multilateralism with transactional deal-making. Bullying, weaponising tariff systems, and coercive diplomacy are the strategic tools he uses to achieve his stated goals. His impulsive ways have pretty much become the new normal in international diplomacy. The latest in a series of shenanigans that have come to define Trump’s persona is the idea of the Gaza ‘Board of Peace’. The proposal is a mockery of the United Nations and the time-tested instruments of multilateralism. The maverick move is in sync with Trump’s propensity for deal-making outside traditional multilateral frameworks. Projected as a pragmatic, business-like mechanism to stabilise Gaza, the concept implicitly challenges the relevance of international institutions in managing one of the world’s most intractable conflicts. At its core, the proposal demonstrates Trump’s scepticism about the UN, which he has repeatedly criticised as inefficient, biased, and overly bureaucratic. The ‘Board of Peace’, especially if it is dominated by select regional powers or US-aligned actors, would signal a shift from universal multilateralism to ad hoc governance. A swift pushback to this preposterous idea is a welcome development. Two permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) — China and France — have rejected Trump’s invitation to be on the Board of Peace. They have rightly pledged their continued allegiance to the spirit of multilateralism and the principles of the UN Charter. India too had received an invitation from Trump but is yet to respond.

India should outright reject the idea instead of taking cover under diplomatic niceties. On the other hand, Pakistan, which loses no opportunity to display its obsequiousness to please the Trump administration, has accepted the invitation to join the board. Any credible peace effort in the war-ravaged Gaza must grapple with realities Trump often sidesteps: international law, civilian protection, and the need for inclusive governance. If the Gaza initiative prioritises optics over substance, it risks becoming another plan that collapses under the weight of ground reality. Peace imposed without legitimacy, consent, and accountability rarely survives. Traditionally, New Delhi has supported a two-state solution while balancing strong ties with Israel and the Arab world. A weakened UN system complicates India’s diplomatic calculus, as New Delhi often relies on multilateral forums to promote stability without direct intervention. Trump’s latest brainwave on Gaza looks less like a diplomatic initiative and more like a real estate advertisement for a distressed asset. Fresh from a brazen operation to extract Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela to “secure the oil,” and amid the renewed attempt to capture Greenland, Trump has now turned his gaze to the rubble of the war in West Asia. His ‘Board of Peace’ is designed to manage the reconstruction not through aid grants, but through investment tranches.

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