Trump's 'Board of Peace' gets its legitimacy from the UN, an agency he routinely belittles

Donald Trump's "Board of Peace." It sounds like an imaginary superagency that kids playing might dream up, sending pretend agents out to bring peace to the world's trouble spots.

Or even a board game. In both instances, the rules are arbitrary.

"Once this board is completely formed, we can do pretty much whatever we want to do," the U.S. president said this week in Davos, Switzerland, as he unveiled his newly minted board members at the World Economic Forum.

Membership is by invitation only, and if a country wants a permanent seat at the table, the price tag is $1 billion US. Otherwise, terms will be three years long, or at the pleasure of the chairman for life, Donald Trump.

He's already dusted off his "you’re fired" skills from The Apprentice, using social media to inform Prime Minister Mark Carney that his invitation had been withdrawn.

So far, about 30 countries ranging from Bulgaria to Belarus have signed on to the board that critics say is a Trumpian bid to build an alternative to the United Nations.

"I don't think that Trump has much respect for the UN. Or again, the norms and the rules created after 1945, because every step of the way [he] drives to ignore it and to create an alternative which is dictated by him," said Yossi Mekelberg, a fellow with the London based think-tank Chatham House.

Earlier this month, the White House moved to withdraw from, and stop funding, 31 UN agencies.

In Davos, Trump said the Board of Peace would work "in conjunction" with the UN. He also said it can "spread out to other areas."

"I think what you're seeing is a board that has been cobbled together for Gaza with much bigger aspirations," said Shashank Joshi, defence editor for the Economist, "but with a set of skills and a set of people that is really very Middle East centric, and I think has quite little relevance to crises outside of that region."

Invites to join the board reportedly describe it as a "nimble and effective international peace-building body," widely interpreted as a swipe at the UN.

But Trump's board owes its legitimacy to UN Security Council Resolution 2803, which in November endorsed his 20-point plan for a ceasefire in Gaza, including the establishment of the board to oversee it.

"The U.S. sought to obtain the maximum international legitimacy from the UN, while trying to keep UN influence and control over the operation as small as possible," Marc Weller, Chatham House’s program director for international law, wrote at the time.

Leaked details of the board's charter make no mention of Gaza, even though several key Middle East countries backing Palestinian statehood have signed on to it, including Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.