The International Law Working Group is delighted to welcome Julia Emtseva (HEC Paris) to present her paper, From the Boardroom to the Board of Peace: Corporatization of Peace and Security Governance in International Law
Abstract
Since the Trump Administration took office, the United States has begun to engage in a new form of peace and security diplomacy, which is evident in the plans to manage and reconstruct Gaza. In this article, we particularly examine Donald Trump’s Board of Peace (BoP) as emblematic of the emerging models of peace and security governance that signal a shift from public, institutional peacebuilding toward privatised and corporate forms of authority – a development that we define as corporatisation. Far from constituting a conventional international organisation, we claim that the BoP is better understood as a corporate-like entity, which consolidates executive authority, relies on flexible but selective membership, operates through voluntary, capital-style funding, and enjoys significant operational autonomy.
The article’s contribution is twofold. First, it offers a conceptual framework for understanding the corporatisation of peace governance by bridging international law with corporate law perspectives. Second, it equips international lawyers with the analytical vocabulary necessary to critically assess this emerging institutional form. We contend that this institutional form reflects an attempt to remake the world of international law through the growing influence of corporate logics within the field of peace and security. Drawing on insights from corporate law, the history of the corporate form, and the literature on the political economy of peacebuilding, we conceptualize the BoP as a vehicle through which economic rationalities and managerialist logics are embedded in post-conflict reconstruction. This shift, we argue, if accepted by the international community, risks displacing foundational principles associated with the exercise of public power, including accountability, transparency, and collective oversight.
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