Trump’s Board of Peace does not change the existing logic of the international order. It merely says it out loud. Sanctions, tariffs, threats, bilateral “deals.” The blending of state power and private interests. Security is granted – but at the cost of concessions of sovereignty
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 questioning the ever-same American strategy of which they themselves are supporters, says Dr. Sanja Vujačić, a geopolitical analyst based in Paris, adding:
– The White House and the Pentagon have just confirmed strategic continuity: Trump’s America remains on the Brzezinski line, according to which Eurasia is the key to global power. The only difference lies in the way the United States now expresses 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 gain, in order to prevent the emergence of any power or alliance that would come to dominate that entire space and its resources. And yet, that power could have been a Europe allied with Russia, capable of standing up to China and the United States on an equal footing. But then it would not be the British, the French and the Germans playing the leading role…
Not an alternative
What is hiding behind Trump’s Board of Peace? Does it mean the end of the United Nations?
– This is a new tool of Trump’s “private diplomacy,” without institutional grounding. A tool that is not embedded in stable, formal institutions capable of implementing, monitoring and maintaining it over time, independently of individuals. Its purpose is to counter the network of BRICS states more effectively than the rigid Western bloc systems can. It is more agile because it allows simultaneous cooperation with all actors in international relations, without any intention of binding itself permanently to a single center of power.
Trump’s Board delivers quick wins, but not lasting influence, which requires institutional support. Russia and China know this. Already the next American administration could return Trump’s deals to classic diplomatic frameworks, as the Biden administration did. That is why neither Xi Jinping nor Vladimir Putin, who have secured for themselves a long tenure in power, can rely on Trump’s agreements, especially when they are merely a demonstration of his personal supremacy – as within the framework of the Board of Peace.
In this light, Trump’s Board is not an alternative to the United Nations. It is a temporary bypassing of institutions so that the US can more easily settle scores with the BRICS states individually. The moves of his private diplomacy toward Venezuela, China, Russia and Iran in early 2026 confirm this. Since BRICS is not a rigid defense bloc but a flexible network, it has so far evaded NATO’s rigid framework. That is precisely why Trump is rapidly adding new tools to the existing instruments in order to preserve American dominance in the world – on which the dominance of the Western European powers in Europe also depends.
Has peace become a private matter for 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” of the powerful. It no longer hides behind informal centers of power such as Bilderberg, the Trilateral Commission and Davos. The United States, as the strongest, has the final say. Trump is not tearing down the order – he is stripping it bare. He is pulling off the mask of Western hypocrisy: the 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 wish it to. The US shows this openly. Washington negotiates as an equal 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 bind only those who wish to be bound. Croatia felt this on its own skin. It accepted the jurisdiction of the ICTY. The tribunal acted. Indictments were raised. Sentences were carried out. The powerful, meanwhile, remained beyond the reach of those same rules.
Trump’s Board of Peace does not change that logic. It merely says it out loud. Sanctions, tariffs, threats, bilateral “deals.” The blending of state power and private interests. Security is granted – but at the cost of 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 multi-million-dollar entry tickets paid by corporations, he monopolized participants’ attention in order to promote the peace concept of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, developed for the Gaza Strip. Entry into the Board has a price: one billion dollars per state! Whoever pays, participates; whoever does not, remains an observer.
The Board of Peace is not a horizontal platform, but a strictly hierarchical pyramid. At the top is Trump as chairman for life, below him Kushner as chief architect of the “peace solutions,” and then the states ranked according to their contribution, obedience and usefulness. Democracy is no longer even simulated – the right to vote is bought. The whole structure resembles a planetary monarchic court, founded on an 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 can be clearly seen in the New Gaza plan: the Palestinians formally remain the owners of the territory, but the real decisions on administration, security and development are made by outside actors. Sovereignty is decorative, legitimacy minimal, and Gaza remains under permanent international, in reality American-Israeli, oversight. In this 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 a political agreement: the territory is not liberated, it is administered. Whether because they reason, like wise disciples of Erasmus, that even “an unfavorable peace is better than a just war,” or because they are fans of the hugely popular American soap opera Dynasty, numerous states have already joined the Board. Others are still considering it.
What has Kosovo gained 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 is a cold calculation of power. Since it cannot enter the UN because of the Russian and Chinese veto, Pristina is seeking 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.
In relation to Serbia, the message is clear. Decisions are no longer sought in Brussels or New York. Placing oneself under the American umbrella is now sought in 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, by joining the Board, Kosovo is buying influence. With it, it then hopes 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 contested state has chosen its patron. The UN remains a symbol of an unfinished procedure. The Board of Peace becomes reality.
An invitation to Croatia
Why does Trump also offer Board of Peace membership to Croatia?
– Croatia is already paying a triple “life insurance policy” – through membership in the EU, NATO and the Three Seas Initiative. For 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 is why Trump is now offering it, as a reward, a fourth – the most expensive – “insurance policy.” Theoretically, to gain the right to sit at the table where the powerful shape peace. Practically, most likely to now pay for protection from the more powerful members of the first three select clubs to which it belongs. For example, to protect itself from Trump’s favorite European leaders – Meloni and Orbán. They occasionally provoke with revisionist and irredentist positions toward Croatian territory.
The growth of American territorial appetites could be accompanied by a similar growth among Trump’s European followers. Croatia therefore faces the question: how and for how long will it be able to pay for this powerful protection of its small state? Croatia can continue to hold that Granić’s calculation – “half for you, half for me, half for Baga” – was correct. Or admit that it was wrong. Finally define its specific national interests and the real threats to them. Formulate its own foreign policy concept to defend those interests from real external threats. Then the correct calculation will finally become clear before its eyes.
How does Trump’s Board of Peace test the positions of European leaders?
– Among European leaders, only Giorgia Meloni precisely grasped the essence of Trump’s Board of Peace: she demanded a revision of its statute, because the Italian Constitution allows accession to international organizations only under conditions of equality, while the current framework grants Trump excessively broad executive powers. It was a clear, resounding and statesmanlike, well-considered move.
Meloni’s refusal was preceded by Macron’s, in “Jupiterian” style – diplomatically polished, with the justification that the Board goes beyond the UN framework and could undermine the existing international order. For the French president, form is often more important than substance. Thus, in the end, social networks did not celebrate the argumentation of the beautiful Italian premier, but rather Macron’s image in Davos – crowned by his splendid aviator sunglasses (the Henry Jullien Pacific model, worth around 659 euros). Because he countered Trump’s egocentrism with his own, the networks saw him as a Hollywood hero straight out of Top Gun, The Terminator, even a character from Miami Vice.
The problem is that no one believes in 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 do not hold the position in Trump’s hierarchy that they consider they deserve. That is why they strive to make their mark on every front. Macron even publicly boasts that French intelligence has taken over two-thirds of the US role in Ukraine, thereby openly confirming deep involvement in a war in the interest of a state that is a member of neither NATO nor the European Union.
European future
What can be expected next, especially from this kind of Europe/European Union, or some other Europe to come?
– American policy shaped European policy for 80 years. Above all, the American Democrats. Today Europe simply no longer has time. It cannot afford to spend that many more decades revising the vassal mindset of its elites. It needs shock therapy, an abrupt turn – even if it is as brutal as Trump’s. The takeoff will not come from further increases in defense spending, but from its reorganization.
The figures 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 this – with EU citizens spending on defense about 2.4 times more, and NATO members together with the US 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 percent of Ukrainian territory, the decline of Europe’s global influence, and its lag in economic and technological development.
Europe has strengthened American defense
How does Trump’s pressure on Greenland affect European security?
– Greenland is not part of the EU either: it left in 1985 following a referendum, so EU law does not apply there, even though its inhabitants hold a Danish (EU) passport. An attack on Greenland – a Danish autonomous territory – would be an attack on Denmark and NATO. Which is why the Coalition of the Willing, as if it were truly a matter of European rather than American security, hastily deployed there even before Davos. As soon as Trump kicked up a fuss about buying the island. But the “fuss” was merely another expression of Trump’s policy of maximum pressure (coercive diplomacy), with the message: “Give in now, or tomorrow it will be worse!” As usual, the American president managed, with unexpected speed, 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 opportunity to devote himself fully to building his pet project, the “Golden Dome” – a strategic shield for the US and global balance, modeled on the Iron Dome that protects the State of Israel.
