The Trump administration is weighing where to locate a proposed “Board of Peace” tied both to a Gaza ceasefire plan and to broader international ambitions, and the leading option under consideration is a Washington building that has been caught up in a federal court fight, according to four administration officials.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the administration is looking at basing the board in the building that formerly housed the U.S. Institute of Peace. They also said that while the topic has been under serious discussion, the administration has not yet made a final decision about where the board’s administrative staff would be located.
The building itself has become a central point in the legal dispute over the U.S. Institute of Peace. The litigation was filed by former employees and executives of the nonprofit think tank after a Republican administration seized the facility last year and fired almost all of the institute’s staff. Since then, the building has been renamed the “Donald J. Trump U.S. Institute of Peace,” but the name and the building’s status remain in what the court filings describe as legal limbo.
A federal judge ruled that the U.S. Institute of Peace, as an independent nongovernmental organization established by Congress, is not subject to executive branch control and that the takeover was illegal. The judge’s ruling has not been fully enforced, however: enforcement was put on hold after the government appealed.
George Foote, counsel for former U.S. Institute of Peace leadership and staff, pushed back against the idea that the government could proceed with changes to the property. In a statement, Foote said, “A stay is not permission for the loser of a case to hijack the property of the winning party,” and he also argued, “It certainly has no right to rename the USIP headquarters building or lease it out for ten years.”
Foote further said in his statement that the government “has no right to open the building to a new international organization like the proposed Board of Peace,” characterizing the board plan as an additional step involving the same disputed site.
Reporting about the board’s potential location has been fueled by signs the administration used before the building-option question became explicit. Rumors began to circulate after the administration used the board’s logo over an image of the U.S. Institute of Peace building, including the structure’s domed roof, and those depictions appeared tied to the board’s branding.
The administration unveiled the Board of Peace last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, with the board described as having 27 “founding members” made up of world leaders. Those leaders’ initial task, according to the board’s framing, is to oversee the administration’s Gaza ceasefire plan.
While the board’s early focus is Gaza, the board’s charter also calls for it to take on and resolve other global conflicts. The prospect of the board expanding beyond Gaza has prompted concern among some governments, including reporting that many of America’s top allies in Europe and elsewhere have declined to join because they suspect it could be an attempt to rival the U.N. Security Council.