More than two dozen nations signed on as founding members of Donald Trump’s Board of Peace. But what exactly have they agreed to? The board’s mandate, structure, and decision-making processes have been outlined in broad terms — but the specifics of member obligations, voting procedures, and enforcement mechanisms remain unclear to outside observers as the board held its inaugural meeting Thursday.
The membership includes Israel and regional heavyweights involved in ceasefire negotiations, as well as countries from outside the Middle East whose leaders either support Trump or hope to build favor with his administration. The list pointedly excludes key US allies — France, Norway, and Sweden declined to join — as well as Palestinians themselves.
Trump claimed this week that member countries had pledged $5 billion for reconstruction and thousands of peacekeeping personnel. Neither figure has been publicly documented. No agenda for Thursday’s meeting was released. The absence of public information about what the board is actually deciding and committing to is a transparency problem that could undermine its credibility with outside partners.
Countries contributing to the proposed International Stabilization Force — including Indonesia, which is training up to 8,000 soldiers — have set explicit limits on what their forces will do. They will not participate in Hamas disarmament. They insist their deployment be framed as peacekeeping, not combat. Whether those limits are compatible with the security environment they would be deployed into is an open question.
Arab and Muslim members have their own conditions: they want Israeli withdrawal alongside Hamas disarmament, and they want the US to restrain Israel’s daily strikes. If those conditions are not addressed, their participation may become increasingly nominal. The board’s first meeting will begin to reveal whether its membership is genuinely committed or merely symbolic.