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Six monarchs, three ex-Soviet rulers, two military-backed regimes and one leader are wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes.
They are among the inaugural members of Donald Trump’s “Peace Board,” a nascent and eccentric rival to the United Nations that has irked Europe and pleased autocrats trying to insert themselves into the US president’s new world order.
“This is going to be the most prestigious board ever,” Trump promised before the official unveiling. “I have some controversial people on this but these are the people who get things done, these are the people who have tremendous influence.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin had already completed “studying all the details” of his personal invitation to attend, and had decided whether he would pay $1 billion for a lifetime membership in an institution with one chair: Trump himself. The US President said on Wednesday evening that Putin was aboard.
The board began as the brainchild of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner as a means to end the war in Gaza. But in a matter of weeks it has evolved into a cure for all the world’s conflicts.
By Tuesday night, hours before Trump unveiled the board in Davos, nearly two dozen countries had publicly accepted his invitation. A senior White House official said earlier Wednesday that they expected about 35 countries to participate, but there was no further update later in the day.
The leaders of those countries will sit atop an executive board — whose appointed members include Kushner, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Secretary of State Marco Rubio — that will oversee its operations in greater detail.
Only one European country has accepted: Viktor Orbán’s Hungary.
Dozens of other leaders, including the Pope, have declined the invitation for now. China has not yet declined the invitation, but has shown no signs of enthusiasm.
For comparison, the United Nations – which was born in the embers of the Second World War – has 193 members.
But the numbers are largely beside the point. As Trump’s aides have made clear, he came to Davos to break norms and wield American power like never before.
This has left America’s allies – including Britain, with its “special relationship”, and India, with the unexpected kinship between Narendra Modi and Trump – to tread a cautious path.
Outright rejection, or even veiled criticism, could undermine Trump’s most frequently used jab: punishing tariffs. (He threatened a 200 percent tariff on French wine after President Emmanuel Macron politely declined.)
But getting involved doesn’t just risk appearing subservient, as California Governor Gavin Newsom warned when suggesting “knee pads” for foreign leaders. It also violates international law or, in the case of Italy, its own constitution.
The peace board is being unveiled against the backdrop of Trump’s territorial longing for Greenland, a threat that America’s NATO allies view as anything but peaceful.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a harsh critic of the United Nations, immediately became involved. They did so a day after bulldozing the vacant East Jerusalem headquarters of the United Nations agency established in 1949 to provide food, housing and education to Palestinian refugees.
But he had to sign remotely – wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges, Netanyahu risked arrest by attending the Davos summit in Switzerland.
The board includes three leaders from former Soviet republics who began their careers as mandarins in the USSR: Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan, and Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan.
Trump is expected to unveil the peace board at 10:30 a.m. local time on Thursday as the centerpiece of his second day of talks at the Davos resort, as well as meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
But the most important member of the board will run the inaugural show in Davos.
The leaked draft of the charter suggests that Trump will serve as president with substantial powers for as long as he wishes.
The President has sole authority to approve the “official seal” of the Board, is the “final authority” on all disputes and can expel members – including, in theory, his successor as US President – unless opposed by a two-thirds majority of the Board.
The next chair will be chosen by one person: Trump.
Design by Carolina Vargas
