The Board of Peace: Is This What Late Stage Capitalism Looks Like?
On 22 January 2026, Donald Trump formally ratified the Charter of the Board of Peace (BoP) at the World Economic Forum in Davos. As of the signing ceremony, 20 countries signed the Charter (Belgium initially appeared on the White House list but denied signing). Countries that joined the wider board include many right-wing or authoritarian governments, such as Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Egypt, Indonesia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Notably, Hungary is the only European country to sign on. Slovenia's Prime Minister Robert Golob declined the invitation to join because the body "dangerously interferes with the broader international order."
The Board of Peace, a body established within the wider framework of the 20-Point Plan to "end" the war in the Gaza Strip, in its final ratification made no mention of Gaza or the Israel-Palestine conflict. Notably, the mandate of the board, which the UN Security Council approved in November, was under the initial framework that mentioned Gaza. Now, the Board is defined more broadly in its own charter as a "global conflict-resolution mechanism" despite having only 20 state signatories. The Board also has no Palestinian representatives.
The structure indicates a sobering truth: that, in the near future at the very least, Palestinians will have little autonomy in deciding their future governance structures and, therefore, their future. Resolution 2803 of the Charter imposes an administration without Palestinian consent, meaning that the BoP gets to decide if and when the population is ready for true sovereignty. UN experts warned that the Palestinian right of self-determination, including through independent statehood, is not guaranteed through this mechanism as international law requires, and is subject to vague preconditions concerning Gaza's redevelopment. The future of Palestine, therefore, would be at the mercy of a few world leaders and executives such as Jared Kushner, who has previously suggested that Palestinians are incapable of self-governance. Such a structure risks external control over Gaza's governance, borders, and reconstruction.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on 22 January, Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, delivered a McKinsey-esque PowerPoint presentation outlining his vision of turning the Gaza Strip into an upscale seaside resort, said to require an investment of at least $25 billion. This plan (according to the slideshow) doesn't even include the rebuild cost of the destruction of underground operational facilities, such as the sewage systems of Gaza, or the inhumane requirement to forcefully remove all citizens from their place of origin to build this area, which is against international law and considered forced displacement of a group. The Board of Peace (as per Jared Kushner's presentation to the world at Davos) seems to be frightfully more focused on the real estate development of Gaza than on creating an actual self-actualising democracy.
Although these concerns exist, public outrage has partly been eased by the idea that it at least, in Donald Trump's words, "ended the war." Except, Israel has violated the ceasefire agreement at least 1,620 times from 10 October 2025 to 10 February 2026 through the continuation of attacks by air, artillery and direct shootings. During the same period, only 43% of the humanitarian aid and food trucks that were supposed to have entered Gaza under international law have been allowed through.Consequently, one must question whether the BoP is really a piece of self-indulgent propaganda for those involved, and if the nature of the board hasn't actually delivered Peace for the people in the area of Gaza.
Already, the BoP has proved inadequate to deliver its one namesake purpose: Peace. But the BoP reflects a greater trend that has metastasised for years now: distrust in global institutions. The individualistic ideals of the BoP suggest to the rest of the world that it is acceptable to prioritise the legitimacy of private actors and individuals that are successful in the global capitalist system over that of formalised international law and humanitarian organisations, which have dedicated their entire careers to gaining institutionally supported and globally backed qualifications.
When rich individuals are trusted more than public institutions, it is generally considered a characteristic of late-stage capitalism or plutocratic capitalism. This phase is characterised by extreme wealth concentration, the erosion of faith in public governance, and the reliance on private actors (such as billionaires) to solve systemic problems. When it comes to the BoP, critics maintain it commodifies peace to secure corporate interests and U.S. hegemony. With Donald Trump as chairman for life, the board represents a move toward "authoritarian capitalism" where power is unconstrained by international law.
When we reach this stage in the global world order, when the global financial system is considered a more valuable measure of importance than education or institution, we lose the trust in the slow guidance of accepted norms and instead accept the winners of what we consider the "reality" of the global system as one that produces radical economic inequality—the billionaires. Public trust in government and institutional systems drops and is replaced by fascination and reliance on entrepreneurial "visionaries" and technocratic figures to run aspects of society. The BoP and its proposed governance of Gaza have delivered the ultimate example of this.
In reality, legitimate representative governance in Palestine will be derived from resistance and liberation. One must remember that the Gaza and Palestinian population is completely demoralised and devastated, physically and mentally, from the war. Once the population is strong enough to resist, they will. Resistance, which includes national history and collective identity, will prevail amongst the people over any occupational body, and such a body will only postpone this process.
As the clearest example of where global governance might be headed—away from institutions and into the hands of wealthy individuals—the BoP is proving to be an ineffective, autocratic, and inhumane source of governance over civilians. If anything, the BoP must act as an urgent warning signal to state leaders everywhere: whilst the company and the wealthy may be accumulating power in the global system, they cannot and should not be able do so at the same scale in state and civilian governance. New international norms must be developed with the backing of states to accommodate the complexities of this global moment, one defined by complexity instead of the definitive boundaries of global problems enjoyed by previous generations. Because otherwise, we risk more governance bodies that reflect the late-stage capitalism emergency that is the BoP.
References
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