Trump inaugurates his 'Board of Peace. Experts try to pinpoint his global doctrine

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0:21On today's State of the World, President Donald Trump's first meeting of his Board of Peace in Washington, D.C.

0:33You're listening to State of the World from NPR, the day's most vital international stories up close with their happening. It's Thursday, February 19th. I'm Christine Arismath. In a moment, foreign policy experts try to define President Trump's vision of international affairs. First, President Trump pledged$10 billion to rebuilding Gaza and says other countries are pitching in another$7 billion. The money will be managed by his newly created Board of Peace. It met at what the administration calls the Donald J. Trump U.S. Institute of Peace. NPR's Michelle Kellerman reports. The stage was set like a television pledge drive.

1:18President Trump at center stage introduced many of the world leaders there, endorsing Hungary's Viktor Orban, who faces a tough re-election campaign, and Argentina's President Javier Millet. Even the head of FIFA, the World Soccer Federation, was there to announce soccer fields for Gaza. This is the most prestigious board ever put together. You know, I've seen some great corporate boards. I've seen some great boards, period. It's peanuts compared to this board. The nearly 50-minute speech was meandering at times. I don't like young, handsome men. Women, that's I like. Trump said it was Secretary of State Marco Rubio who took over the venue, the U.S.

2:00Institute of Peace Building, and put Trump's name on it. Marco named it after me. I had nothing to do with it. I swear I didn't. Once he got down to the focus of the day, Gaza, the president, announced that the U.S. is giving$10 billion to the Board of Peace, though members of Congress question the legality of that. He also says he's raised$7 billion from nine other countries that joined his board, mostly in the Middle East and Central Asia. The Palestinian who's been tapped to lead a committee to administer Gaza, Ali Shaf, brought the conversation down to the reality on the ground. Large parts of Gaza's tribe are severely damaged, destroyed, actually.

2:41Humanitarian needs are acute. And there's no law and order. The Bulgarian diplomat and former UN Middle East envoy who's overseeing this, Nikolai Mladenov, says he's already starting to recruit Palestinian police officers for Gaza. And just in the first few hours, we have 2 ,000 people who have applied to join a new transitional Palestinian police force to be formed in Gaza under the authority of the National Committee with the support of the Board of Peace trained in Egypt. Indonesia, Morocco, Albania, Kosovo and Kazakhstan are all planning to send troops and police to set up an international stabilization force, but it's not clear when they'll get there or what they can do, while Hamas remains in control of part of Gaza and the disarmament of the group is likely to be a long, drawn-out process.

3:34Still, there was a lot of talk about the valuable coastline in Gaza and the potential to build islands to develop as well. Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who the president is now calling his envoy of peace, says he wanted this event to look like a corporate board meeting. We cannot change the past, but I think that what you're seeing today is that we can potentially change the future if we focus and do this in the right way. Amid all this talk of peace, the Middle East is preparing for a possible new war with Iran. President Trump says the Gaza ceasefire wouldn't have happened without the U.S.

4:11and Israel bombing Iran's nuclear sites last year. So now we may have to take it a step further or we may not. Maybe we're going to make a deal. You're going to be finding out over the next probably 10 days. Kushner and Trump's other Middle East envoys, Steve Witkoff, have been involved in those talks with Iran, as well as the administration's efforts to end Russia's war against Ukraine. Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, the State Department.

4:42While President Trump's focus at the Board of Peace meeting was Gaza and Iran, in January he was sparring with allies over Arctic security. Trying to pin down Trump's vision of global affairs has become something of a parlor game for foreign policy specialists looking for just the right label. NPR's international affairs correspondent Jackie Northam looks at some of the theories. Last month, President Trump made it clear he wanted the U.S. to acquire Greenland by military force if necessary. Then, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he seemed uncharacteristically coy. Would you like me to say a few words of Greenland?

5:25Trump announced he wouldn't use force against Greenland, but sent a clear warning he still wanted the island in a way that left his audience guessing. They have a choice. You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative. Or you can say no, and we will remember. For many, such a move made no sense. But Stacey Goddard, a political science professor at Wellesley College, says Trump's moves seem incoherent because you're looking at them through the wrong lens. And it becomes really logical if you apply this kind of 16th century dynastic politics, say Game of Thrones. Goddard says Trump is using a neo-royalist approach to foreign affairs, shifting policies at whim and using his enormous power as leverage.

6:13Goddard argues this imperious approach has less to do with the country's national interests and more to do with ensuring Trump's personal wealth and status. So he is the absolute sovereign. A sovereign surrounded by a royal clique. Some of it is family. Some of it are loyalists. Some of them are financiers. You know, people can actually give him the capital to do what he wants to do. And he can also pay them the spoils. And then there are also the ideologues, the people surrounding him that are giving him the legitimacy that he needs in order to be able to conduct this foreign policy. Seva Ganitsky, an associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto, agrees the Trump administration operates with all the power concentrated on one individual.

6:58Ganitsky calls it a personalist style of foreign policy, which is an extension of one person's ego or psyche. Personalist leaders, they are driven purely by their own private fixations, their own incentives, not coherent national interests. And for Trump, those incentives are, you know, being flattered, not being mocked. Ganitsky points to a letter Trump sent earlier this year to the prime minister of Norway, trying to justify an invasion of Greenland. Where he said, you know, I've been denied the Nobel Peace Prize, and therefore I'm no longer going to be the peace president. That's a clear indication of where his personal grievances interact with national policies.

7:38But Trump's erratic rhetoric and actions could just be an act, says Roseanne McManus, a political science professor at Penn State University. She says since his first presidential campaign, Trump has claimed that U.S. foreign policy needed to be more unpredictable. McManus says Trump is employing what she calls a madman strategy. I think Trump doesn't really want people to know what he's thinking or how far he's willing to go. You know, it's not clear what strategies he's going to use at any time. McManus says Trump's rhetoric suggests he's aware of his madness reputation and thinks it helps him get what he wants.

8:16You don't actually have to follow through every single time. People just have to believe that there's some chance you might do absolutely anything. Christian Coates Ulrichson, a Mideast analyst at Rice University's Baker Institute, believes Trump is more of a realist when it comes to foreign policy, power through strength. He feels that the U.S. has the other hand. and that maybe other leaders in the past haven't acted as he would see it in the U.S. national interests by putting U.S. interests first and foremost. Including invading another country. To the extent that the U.S. has the capability and the power to do that, I think he probably thinks, why wouldn't we do it if we can?

8:57There are plenty of other theories about Trump's approach to foreign policy. Isolationist, sovereign decisionist, the Monroe Doctrine, which has morphed into the Donroe Doctrine. Some believe Trump's style is based on reality TV. Trump's handling of foreign policy could be a bit of all of these. Only one person knows, and he's not telling. Jackie Northam, NPR News.

9:27That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening.