UNDER TRUMP AMERICAN PLEDGES $7 BILLION TO THE BOARD OF PEACE

Written by Michael Thervil

UNDER TRUMP AMERICAN PLEDGES $7 BILLION TO THE BOARD OF PEACE | PHOTO BY MARK SCHIEFELBEIN/AP

[Trump Board of Peace 7 billion] Yesterday in Washington DC, American President Donald Trump held his first meeting with members of his newly created international "Board of Peace”. In a combined effort between nations to solve many of the world's problems starting with Palestine, specifically Gaza; it seems as if President Trump is not only spearheading a new global order but solidifying himself in terms of global governance. President Trump's Board of Peace comes on the heels of America contemplating pulling itself out of NATO.

In terms of Gaza, President Trump has openly stated that America will pledge $10 billion to the international organization. It was also revealed by President Trump several nations have also made monetary pledges to the tune of $7 billion dollars. Some of those nations were Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Kuwait. But with all the monetary pledges and promises made during President Trump’s speech today, many detractors and geopolitical analysts are wondering if the name of the organization should be changed from “The Board of Peace” to "The Board of War”.

The first reason for this is because instead of the use of diplomacy and compromise, it appears to many detractors that “gun boat diplomacy” or diplomacy under threat is being used by The Board of Peace. Further backing their position is that member countries of The Board of Peace such as Morocco, Albania, Kosovo, Egypt, Jordan, and Kazakhstan are providing military personnel and assets to meet the needs of the organization. The second reason that backs their position is the statement made by former American Middle East negotiator Aaron David Miller:

“The money is no good if you can’t spend it”.

The idea of pledging a significant amount of funds sounds like a great idea to many, but if Israel is going to play a role in the inspection and allocation of those funds, the most likely conclusion is that the Palestinians will never see all the fund’s flow through to Palestine. 

Pushing back against that, those in favor of The Board of Peace believe that they can “restore security via professional civilian police under one authority … including training and developing 5,000 Gazan police to be deployed in 60 days”. Beyond this, out of 27 countries that joined The Board of Peace, countries such as Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, and the Vatican. It should also be noted that there were several other countries that were invited to join The Board of Peace but are currently hesitant to do so. The countries that fall into this category are Australia, Brazil, China, Cyprus, the European Commission, Finland, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Oman, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, and Thailand.

Although the reasons for these countries either declining to join or being hesitant to join President Trump’s Board of Peace is currently unknown, the one thing that is known is that the one thing that beats a failure is a try.