The end of the UN illusion: the real guarantor of peace sits in the White House, but his peace is a power game of interests…
We are living through a moment of crisis in which European leaders justify their own strategic failures by questioning the mental health of the American president, rather than the very same American strategy they themselves support – says Dr. Sanja Vujačić, a geopolitical analyst based in Paris (https://grayscalegeopolitics.com)
– The White House and the Pentagon have just confirmed strategic continuity: Trump’s America remains on Brzezinski’s line [1], according to which Eurasia is the key to global power. The only difference lies in how the United States chooses to express its will to power. To the rigid military and economic blocs and the sluggish international institutions developed by his predecessors, Trump adds transactional practice, pressure, and quick gains, aiming to prevent the emergence of any power or alliance capable of dominating that entire space and its resources. Yet that power could have been Europe allied with Russia, capable of standing on equal footing with China and the United States. But in that case, the leading role would not have gone to the British, the French, and the Germans…
NOT AN ALTERNATIVE
What is hiding behind Trump’s Board of Peace? Does it mean the end of the United Nations?
– It’s a new tool of Trump’s “private diplomacy,” without any institutional foothold. A tool that isn’t embedded in stable, formal institutions capable of implementing, monitoring, and sustaining it over time, independent of individuals. Its purpose is to counter the network of BRICS states [2] more effectively than rigid Western bloc systems can. It is more agile because it allows simultaneous cooperation with all actors in international relations, without any intention of permanently binding itself to a single center of power.
Trump’s Board delivers quick wins, but not lasting influence, which requires institutional backing. Russia and China know this. The very next American administration could return Trump’s deals to a classic diplomatic framework, just as Biden’s did. That’s why neither Xi Jinping nor Vladimir Putin, both of whom have secured themselves lasting rule, can rely on Trump’s agreements — especially when those agreements are, above all, demonstrations of his personal dominance, as is the case within the Board of Peace.
In that light, Trump’s Board is not an alternative to the United Nations. It is a temporary way of bypassing institutions so the US can more easily deal with BRICS states individually. His private diplomacy’s moves in early 2026 toward Venezuela, China, Russia, and Iran confirm this. Since BRICS is not a rigid defense bloc but a flexible network, it has so far slipped past NATO’s rigid framework. That is precisely why Trump is rapidly adding new tools to his existing arsenal to preserve American dominance in the world — a dominance on which the dominance of the Western European powers in Europe also depends.
Has peace become a private matter of the powerful?
– Trump’s Board of Peace is not another institution. It is simply a more honest version of the existing order. An agile tool of his “private diplomacy.” A kind of “private law” for the powerful. It no longer hides behind informal centers of power like Bilderberg, the Trilateral Commission, and Davos. The United States, as the strongest power, has the final word. Trump isn’t tearing down the order — he’s stripping it bare. He’s pulling off the mask of Western hypocrisy: rules apply — but only to others!
International law without power “has no teeth.” It has no courts, police, prisons, or sanctions of its own. It binds the weak. It restrains the powerful only if they themselves choose to be restrained. The US shows this openly. Washington speaks on equal footing only with Israel. The other allies stay silent. From the bombing of Serbia and the invasion of Iraq, through secret renditions and Guantánamo, to targeted drone killings in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, and the abduction of the Venezuelan president. The message is clear: formal rules only bind those who choose to be bound by them.
Croatia felt this on its own skin. It accepted the ICTY’s jurisdiction. The court acted. Indictments were issued. Sentences were carried out. Meanwhile, the powerful remained beyond the reach of those very same rules.
Trump’s Board of Peace doesn’t change that logic. It just says it out loud. Sanctions, tariffs, threats, bilateral “deals.” A blending of state power and private interests. Security is granted – but in exchange for concessions of sovereignty. Ceasefires and “humanitarian” concessions come bundled with an implicit right to oil, rare earth elements, influence, and political obedience. Peace is possible. But always with collateral.
FROM GAZA TO KOSOVO
Is Trump’s Board of Peace a new global hierarchy in which peace is bought and sovereignty is lost?
– For the inauguration of the Board of Peace, Trump chose Davos, a symbol of the informal centers of global power that bring together private power brokers and statesmen. There, despite the million-dollar tickets paid for by corporations, he monopolized the audience’s attention to promote the peace concept developed by his son-in-law Jared Kushner for the Gaza Strip. Entry into the Board comes at a price: one billion dollars per state! Whoever pays, participates; whoever doesn’t, remains an observer.
The Board of Peace is not a horizontal platform, but a strictly hierarchical pyramid. At the top sits Trump as chairman for life, below him Kushner as chief architect of “peace solutions,” and then states ranked according to their contribution, obedience, and usefulness. Democracy is no longer even simulated — the right to a voice is bought. The whole structure resembles a planetary monarchical court, built on authority derived from control of the Holy Land, with Jerusalem at its center, which gives Trump and Kushner the ambition of governing the global “moral” and political order.
The model is clearly visible in the New Gaza plan: Palestinians formally remain the owners of the territory, but the real decisions on governance, security, and development are made by outside actors. Sovereignty is decorative, legitimacy is minimal, and Gaza remains under permanent international, effectively American-Israeli, oversight. Within that architecture appears Tony Blair, not as an elected representative but as a manager of peace without mandate or accountability. In this way, the Board of Peace institutionalizes peace as administration rather than as political agreement: territories are not liberated, they are managed.
Whether because they think, like the wise Erasmus, that “an unfavorable peace is better than a just war,” or because they’re fans of the hugely popular American soap opera Dynasty, numerous states have already joined the Board. Others are still considering it.
What did Kosovo gain from membership in the Board of Peace?
– For Kosovo, joining Trump’s Board of Peace is not a matter of faith in international law. It’s a cold calculation of power. Since it cannot enter the UN because of the Russian and Chinese vetoes, Pristina seeks legitimacy outside the formal institutions. Directly in Washington. The Board offers what the UN cannot: political visibility, a security guarantee, and confirmation of statehood without consensus.
Regarding Serbia, the message is clear. Decisions are no longer sought in Brussels or New York. Placing oneself under the American umbrella is now sought at Mar-a-Lago, the residence of the Trump dynasty. On one hand, the powerful American military base — Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo — guarantees the security status quo in the region. On the other hand, through Board membership, Kosovo buys influence. With it, it hopes in turn to buy the status of a recognized state, access to the international community, and an additional policy of American “life insurance.” In a world where the law does not bind the powerful, this small and disputed state has chosen its patron. The UN remains a symbol of an unfinished procedure. The Board of Peace is becoming reality.
AN INVITATION TO CROATIA
Why is Trump offering Board of Peace membership to Croatia too?
– Croatia already pays a triple “life insurance policy” – through membership in the EU, NATO, and the Three Seas Initiative. For the sake of formal protection, collective defense, and regional influence — all on paper. Croatia recognizes ad hoc international courts. It buys American and European military equipment. It offends no one except the Russians. It fiercely defends the Ukrainians. Exactly as expected of it.
That’s why Trump is now, as a reward, offering it a fourth – the most expensive – “insurance policy.” Theoretically, so it gets the right to sit at the table where the powerful carve up peace. Practically, most likely so it now pays for protection from the more powerful members of the first three select clubs it already belongs to. For example, to protect itself from Trump’s favorite European leaders — Meloni and Orbán. They occasionally provoke with revisionist and irredentist stances toward Croatian territory.
The growth of American territorial appetites could be followed by growing appetites among Trump’s European followers as well. Croatia therefore faces the question: how, and for how long, will it be able to afford such immense protection for its small state? Croatia can continue to hold the view that Granić’s formula of “half for you, half for me, half for Baghdad” was correct. Or it can admit that it was mistaken. Finally define its own specific national interests and the real threats to them. Formulate its own foreign policy concept to defend those interests from genuine external threats. Only then will the correct calculation finally become clear before its eyes.
How does Trump’s Board of Peace test the positions of European leaders?
– Of the European leaders, only Giorgia Meloni precisely grasped the essence of Trump’s Board of Peace: she demanded a revision of its statute, since the Italian Constitution allows joining international organizations only on equal terms, while the current framework grants Trump excessively broad executive powers. It was a clear, loud, and statesmanlike move.
Meloni’s rejection was preceded by Macron’s, delivered in a “Jupiterian” [3] style – diplomatically polished, with the argument that the Board falls outside the UN framework and could undermine the existing international order. For the French president, form is often more important than substance. In the end, social media did not celebrate the beautiful Italian president’s argumentation, but rather Macron’s image at Davos — crowned by his splendid aviator sunglasses (a Henry Jullien Pacific model, worth around €659). Because he countered Trump’s egocentrism with his own, social media perceived him as a Hollywood hero out of Top Gun, Terminator, or even a character from Miami Vice.
The problem is that no one trusts Hollywood anymore. Not even the “Coalition of the Willing,” led by France and the United Kingdom — the most loyal American allies, frustrated only by the fact that they don’t hold the position they feel they deserve in Trump’s hierarchy. That’s why they try to prove themselves on every front. Macron even publicly boasts that French intelligence has taken over two-thirds of the US’s role in Ukraine [4], thereby openly confirming deep involvement in a war in the interest of a country that is neither a NATO member nor part of the European Union.
How does Trump’s pressure on Greenland affect European security?
– Greenland isn’t part of the EU either — it left in 1985 following a referendum, so EU law doesn’t apply there, even though its residents hold Danish (EU) passports. An attack on Greenland – a Danish autonomous territory – would be an attack on Denmark and on NATO. Which is why the Coalition of the Willing, as if it were really about European security rather than American security, rapidly deployed there even before Davos. As soon as Trump raised a fuss about buying the island. But the “fuss” was just another expression of Trump’s policy of maximum pressure (coercive diplomacy), carrying the message: “Give in now, or it will be worse tomorrow!” As usual, the American president unexpectedly quickly managed to achieve his key goal: he strengthened American defense with free European protection of American territory from possible Russian missiles, whose shortest trajectory passes over the North Pole and Greenland. At the same time, he himself gained the chance to focus fully on building the project dearest to his heart, the “Golden Dome” – a strategic shield for the US and global balance, modeled on the Iron Dome that protects the State of Israel.
EUROPE’S FUTURE
To conclude, what should we expect going forward, particularly from a Europe/European Union like this one, or from some other, long-term Europe?
– American policy has shaped European policy for 80 years. Above all, American Democrats. Today, Europe simply no longer has the time. It cannot afford to spend that many more decades revising the vassal mindset of its elites. It needs shock therapy, a sudden turn — even if it’s as brutal as Trump’s. The takeoff won’t come from further increases in defense spending, but from its reorganization. The numbers speak relentlessly about the strategic failures of European leaders so far: in 2024, the EU spent 343 billion euros, NATO together with the US spent 1,430 billion, and Russia spent 142 billion euros (sources: Consilium and SIPRI). Despite the fact that EU citizens spend about 2.4 times more on defense, and NATO members together with the US spend ten times more, than Russian citizens, the outcome of the confrontation between Europe, NATO, and the US on one side and Russia on the other is well known: the loss of more than 20% of Ukrainian territory, a decline in Europe’s global influence, and its falling behind in economic and technological development.
([1] The strategy from Zbigniew Brzezinski’s book The Grand Chessboard presents the world as a great geopolitical chessboard, on which the US must carefully manage relationships and rivalries across the Eurasian landmass in order to prevent the emergence of any great power capable of threatening its global dominance.
[2] BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) is not a formal alliance, but a network of interests bringing together about 40% of the world’s population and more than a quarter of global GDP. Its goal is to reduce the dominance of the dollar and replace Western bloc logic with a flexible network of political and financial power.
[3] In Roman mythology, the Greek Zeus becomes Jupiter: the supreme god – lord of the sky and thunder, king of the gods, a symbol of authority, power, and supreme judicial and political rule.
[4] See: https://www.tf1info.fr/international/renseignements-ukrainiens-la-france-ne-s-est-pas-entierement-substituee-aux-etats-unis-selon-l-historien-militaire-benoist-bihan-2419256.html)
