It could be the classic synopsis of a Netflix political fantasy series – “In a dystopian future, the world order is subverted by the leader of the most powerful nation in the world, bringing everything back into complete chaos, while a handful of “willing” people try to oppose it with all their might” – but it’s all true. Donald Trump, at the Davos Forum, during the World Economic Forum, fully wore the role of the capricious and fickle leader. A sort of Joker of international politics, as well as domestic politics, determined to shuffle the cards of any pre-established order prior to his re-election. The villain is fully served, while his antagonist is missing.

Trump relaunches global peace (without the West)

In Davos, after a first day in which Trump once again attacked Europe, he once again affirmed his merits for having stopped eight wars around the world – no one still has the exact knowledge of what these conflicts are – and reiterated his desire to annex Greenland to the USA – the only novelty is that he excluded the use of force – the following day (January 22) he signed the founding charter of the “Board of Peace” – or “Peace Council”, which will say if desired – initiative launched in 2025 to manage the peace and reconstruction process of the Gaza Strip (with attached AI-generated reel, relaunched via social media, which advertised a “Jersey Shore”-style Gaza Strip, with a good addition of Billionaire flavourcomplete with a golden statue of Trump himself) with the ambition of mediating global conflicts, in direct competition with the UN. The ceremony at the World Economic Forum saw around twenty leaders join the Board of Peace, taking the stage alongside Trump. Among them, Javier Milei (Argentina), Viktor Orbán (Hungary), Vjosa Osmani (Kosovo), as well as representatives of Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Bahrain and Morocco. All key Western allies are absent, with Giorgia Meloni’s Italy postponing the decision to join or not – by virtue of the limits set by our Constitution – trying to mediate his refusal with Trump.

A paid parallel UN

The eleven pages of the founding statute of the Board of Peace name Donald Trump as chairman for life, with veto powers; quotas of a billion dollars (to be understood into whose coffers this money will go – it is not excluded that they could end up in the pockets of Trump himself) for the purchase of permanent seats and a tripartite structure: the main Board (made up of 60 members), the Executive Board (7 members), which deals with diplomatic initiatives and issues relating to investments, and the Gaza Executive Board, which will be responsible for coordinating operations on the Gaza Strip, including the humanitarian, diplomatic and administrative aspects in post-conflict transitional phase. In fact, the Board of Peace aims to be an alternative decision-making forum – and more controllable by the USA – compared to the UN collective security system. It is not a simple negotiating table, but a parallel architecture: a restricted forum where it is decided who participates in crisis management and under what conditions, intertwining military, political and financial power, with a dangerous mix between public and private stakeholders who should decide the fate of entire sovereign countries and global macro-regions. In practice, the Peace Council aspires to become a political-operational control room on a global scale, establishing – to the tune of billions of dollars – who sits at the decision-making table, how to direct funds for the reconstruction of the regions subject to conflict, how to coordinate the multinational military presence and whether, when and how to influence the forms of transitional administration of the territories, as well as in what way to direct the political and democratic life of other sovereign countries.

Whoever pays decides

Net of the discovered instrumental nature of the body, the naked truth is that it is a UN for the use and consumption of the United States of America, a true international affairs committee led directly by the US President. Trump presides over the Peace Council, controls the admission procedure for its members – creating a select club of wealthy decision-makers, with political influence on a global scale – and holds a veto on key decisions, which can only be overcome with a qualified majority vote. Surrounding the Leviathan Donald Trump, there is the Founding Executive Council – made up of seven prominent figures such as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan, Ajay Banga (former World Bank president) and National Security Advisor Robert Gabriel. This body is a select committee reporting directly to Trump, charged with overseeing the mission of the Board of Peace in terms of diplomacy, investments, policies and appointments, with the obligation to report quarterly to the main Board and subject to the veto of the chairman (yes, always Trump). In short, it is an international organization in the image and likeness of a board of directors of a multinational, complete with CEO (Chief Executive Officer). Another element of fundamental importance is the possible and future membership of Russian countries in the Board of Peace, making this body an international forum in which to redesign the world balance. The Board of Peace would take on the appearance of a real experiment for the pragmatic exercise of a new geopolitical governance: a platform in which those who pay enter, those who enter decide and those who decide define the conditions of peace – but also of war – reconstruction and access to resources in the main crisis theaters around the world. A sort of permanent Yalta agreement.

Towards a new geopolitical Middle Ages: the era of the Board of Peace

The Board of Peace is another blow to the post-World War II world order, establishing a new equilibrium based on the law of the strongest and the richest, in which those who are weaker must necessarily succumb. The Peace Council risks perpetuating instability rather than resolving it: an ambitious but fragile experiment, where the promised efficiency clashes with legitimacy deficits, opacity and polarization. A selective diplomacy that rewards the wallet, not the representativeness, undermining the principle of sovereign equality. The Peace Council claims global “peace-building” functions, overlapping with the Security Council and the UN efforts, already paralyzed by the US vetoes on Gaza. And therefore, the USA, perhaps with the collaboration of Russia and other world powers, could boycott the UN to turn to the Board of Peace, precisely because there they would no longer be bound by international law and, for example, by respect for the Charter of Human Rights. There is an increasing sensation of having entered a spiral that is leading international relations towards a new Middle Ages, under the motto of “Homo homini lupus”.