Analysis of: What is Trump’s Board of Peace and who is involved?
The Guardian | February 20, 2026
TL;DR
Trump's $1bn-entry 'Board of Peace' for Gaza reconstruction excludes Palestinians from power while seating their occupier—creating a pay-to-play alternative to international law. This naked privatization of diplomacy shows how capital now openly purchases geopolitical legitimacy.
Analytical Focus:Class Analysis Contradictions Interconnections
Trump's Board of Peace represents a striking development in the privatization of international governance—a body where membership is explicitly purchased through billion-dollar contributions, where the affected population (Palestinians) is relegated to 'technocratic committees' while their colonizers and war criminals sit at the executive table. The organization's structure reveals class power operating with unusual transparency: Gulf monarchies, real estate dynasties (Kushner), and former imperial administrators (Blair) convene to determine the fate of 2.2 million displaced people who have no meaningful representation. The contradictions embedded in this arrangement are immediately apparent. A body named 'Board of Peace' includes a leader facing ICC arrest warrants for alleged war crimes while excluding the victims of those crimes. The charter omits any reference to Gaza or the UN mandate it supposedly fulfills, suggesting the reconstruction agenda serves interests entirely separate from Palestinian welfare. The $5 billion pledge—while substantial—will flow through channels controlled by the same actors who have material interests in the region's strategic positioning and resources. This development signals a broader shift in how imperial powers manage peripheral territories. Rather than working through established international institutions with their nominal commitments to sovereignty and human rights, capital now constructs parallel structures where economic might translates directly into political authority. The absence of major Western democracies and rival powers (Russia, China) suggests this is less a universal peace mechanism than a formalization of a particular bloc's interests in the region—one where reconstruction becomes a vehicle for capital accumulation and geopolitical positioning rather than Palestinian self-determination.
Class Dynamics
Actors: Gulf state monarchies (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar), Israeli state and military leadership, US capitalist class (represented through Kushner, Trump), Former imperial administrators (Blair), Palestinian population (2.2 million displaced), Palestinian technocratic representatives, Major Western democratic states (absent), Rival imperial powers (Russia, China - absent)
Beneficiaries: Construction and development capital positioned for Gaza contracts, Gulf sovereign wealth funds seeking regional influence, Israeli state (legitimization despite ICC warrant), US geopolitical interests seeking UN alternative, Real estate and investment interests (Kushner family), Arms manufacturers and military contractors
Harmed Parties: Palestinian population denied meaningful representation, International legal frameworks and precedent, Working-class populations globally as privatized diplomacy normalizes, Regional stability as excluded powers may pursue parallel agendas
The Board's structure crystallizes class power into institutional form: those with billions gain permanent membership, those with mere expertise serve on subordinate committees, and those whose lives are at stake—the 2.2 million displaced Palestinians—are effectively voiceless. Netanyahu's presence despite an ICC warrant demonstrates that sufficient capital accumulation renders international law inapplicable. The inclusion of Kushner—with his family's real estate empire and prior role in Middle East policy—exemplifies how ruling-class individuals circulate between state power and private accumulation.
Material Conditions
Economic Factors: $1 billion membership fee as explicit price of political access, $5 billion reconstruction pledge as investment vehicle, Gaza's strategic position and potential resource extraction, Construction contracts and infrastructure development opportunities, Gulf capital seeking diversification and regional influence, US interest in alternative institutions outside multilateral constraints
The reconstruction of Gaza will generate enormous surplus value through construction, infrastructure, and development—labor that will largely be performed by workers while profits flow to the states and corporations controlling the Board. The $1 billion entry fee establishes that only those who command vast accumulated capital can participate in determining how this reconstruction proceeds. Palestinians, who would provide much of the labor, are structurally excluded from decisions about how their labor and land will be organized.
Resources at Stake: Gaza reconstruction contracts ($5 billion initial pledge), Long-term economic control over Gaza territory, Regional transit and trade route positioning, Offshore natural gas reserves in Gaza's maritime zone, Geopolitical legitimacy and international recognition, Precedent for privatized international governance
Historical Context
Precedents: League of Nations mandate system (colonial administration through international bodies), Structural Adjustment Programs (conditional 'aid' serving creditor interests), Iraq reconstruction contracts (post-war privatization), Concert of Europe (great power management of smaller nations), Bretton Woods institutions (weighted voting based on capital contribution)
The Board of Peace represents a logical extension of neoliberal governance into geopolitics. Just as structural adjustment transformed development into a vehicle for capital penetration of peripheral economies, this body transforms 'peace' and 'reconstruction' into investment opportunities managed by those with capital. The explicit $1 billion price tag removes any pretense of democratic or humanitarian motivation—this is the commodification of international relations, where peace itself becomes a product sold to the highest bidder. It echoes earlier periods when imperial powers openly divided territories based on their economic and strategic value, but now conducted through the language of corporate governance ('executive board,' 'technocratic committee').
Contradictions
Primary: A body dedicated to 'peace' that excludes the primary victims while including alleged war criminals—the fundamental contradiction between stated purpose and actual composition reveals that 'peace' here means pacification of a colonized population, not justice or self-determination.
Secondary: Reconstruction led by forces complicit in destruction, Democratic legitimacy claims without democratic participation, National sovereignty rhetoric while overriding Palestinian sovereignty, UN alternative that nonetheless relies on UN mandate for justification, Western democracy absence undermining claims to international legitimacy, Gulf monarchies' authoritarian governance managing 'peace' process
These contradictions will likely intensify as reconstruction proceeds. If Palestinian interests are systematically ignored, resistance will continue, undermining the 'peace' the Board claims to provide. The absence of major Western democracies and rival powers (Russia, China) creates space for competing initiatives and legitimacy challenges. The explicit transactional nature may ultimately delegitimize the body if reconstruction fails to materially improve Palestinian lives—making clear that the billions served investor returns rather than humanitarian needs. The contradiction could catalyze broader rejection of privatized international governance if it produces visibly unjust outcomes.
Global Interconnections
The Board of Peace must be understood within the broader crisis of US hegemony and the fracturing of post-WWII international institutions. As the UN and international law increasingly constrain US and Israeli actions—the ICC warrant against Netanyahu being a prime example—capital seeks to construct parallel institutions where it faces no such constraints. The $1 billion entry fee functions similarly to IMF voting weights: formalizing the rule of money over the rule of law. This connects to wider patterns of what David Harvey calls 'accumulation by dispossession.' The destruction of Gaza creates opportunities for reconstruction profits; the displacement of 2.2 million people clears land for development; the exclusion of Palestinians from decision-making ensures this development serves external capital rather than local needs. The Gulf states' involvement reflects their own trajectory of financialized accumulation seeking stable investment vehicles beyond oil dependency. The Board thus represents a node where multiple streams of global capital—US, Israeli, Gulf—converge around the profitable management of a dispossessed population.
Conclusion
The Board of Peace illuminates how nakedly capital now operates in international affairs, dispensing with earlier liberal pretenses about human rights, sovereignty, or democratic participation. For working-class observers globally, this should clarify that 'peace' and 'reconstruction' under capitalist management serve accumulation, not human welfare. The explicit $1 billion price tag for political power—usually obscured through lobbying, campaign finance, and think-tank funding—appears here in transparent form. The task for those committed to genuine peace is to support Palestinian self-determination against this administered pacification, while recognizing that such privatized governance models will increasingly be deployed wherever capital sees profitable 'reconstruction' opportunities—from climate disasters to future conflicts. Solidarity requires opposing not just this specific body, but the logic that reduces human lives to investment opportunities.
Suggested Reading
- Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism by V.I. Lenin (1917) Lenin's analysis of how finance capital seeks territorial control and how great powers divide the world remains directly applicable to understanding how the Board of Peace functions as a mechanism for regional domination through capital.
- The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon (1961) Fanon's analysis of colonialism, the psychology of oppression, and the exclusion of colonized peoples from decisions about their own fate directly illuminates the Palestinian condition under this arrangement.
- The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein (2007) Klein's documentation of how disasters and destruction create opportunities for capital accumulation provides essential context for understanding Gaza reconstruction as disaster capitalism in action.
- The New Imperialism by David Harvey (2003) Harvey's concept of 'accumulation by dispossession' offers a theoretical framework for understanding how the destruction and displacement in Gaza creates profitable opportunities for reconstruction capital.