The “Comprehensive Gaza Peace Plan", announced in September 2025, was all theatrics disguised as diplomacy. Part showmanship but largely assertion of power, the plan claimed to end the Gaza war and promised stability, investment, and new beginnings for war-torn Gaza. But under that rhetoric lies a suspicious model of a changing world, one that is designed by authority, legitimacy, and global influence.

The plan does not simply represent a ceasefire or rebuilding Gaza, but at its core, it attempts to recast peacebuilding as a tool of governance and a blend of security management, economic oversight, and political control. It is, in essence, a “managed peace" where sovereignty is not extended to Gaza, not as a right, but as a privilege to be earned through compliance. The US even warns that rejecting the plan could bring “massive bloodshed", turning peace into a conditional threat.

Broadly, the peace proposal promises a ceasefire, the disarmament of Hamas, the release of hostages, and a phased Israeli withdrawal once a “verified security architecture" is in place. It also envisions a five-year interim administration for Gaza which will be overseen by a “Board of Peace" that will supervise reconstruction, monitor security, manage aid, and shape Gaza’s economic recovery. The board will be chaired by an American envoy and joined by representatives from Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and select Arab partners.

The plan also has a US-controlled Reconstruction and Development Fund that would funnel money from international donors, and the special economic zones would tie Gaza’s economy into regional markets. But this development programme and humanitarian partnership come at a cost: suspended Palestinian autonomy until the conditions set by the US are met. This plan effectively places trusteeship in all but name.

This world has witnessed this pattern before: Bosnia after the Dayton Accords, Kosovo under UN administration, and Iraq following 2003. In all the cases similar plans where externally designed institutions were imposed in the name of peacebuilding were followed.

However, the Gaza plan is a step ahead, as it almost excludes the agency of the local people and makes Palestinians not participants and stakeholders but merely subjects bound to predesigned peace.

Narratives of development and security have replaced dialogue and representation and reinstated a familiar global hierarchy where the West designs, the region complies, and sovereignty is granted in favour.

Now, viewed against the larger geopolitical chessboard, Trump’s Gaza plan also has global implications. It tends to remind Beijing, Moscow, and others that Washington is still the broker of peace in the Middle East. The plan seeks to reconfirm the US as an “engineer of stability" by combining its military strength with economic and institutional control.

The plan stands out as a deliberate counter move to the world that is inching towards multipolarity. Where on one hand China is approaching the world through influence and stability through connectivity (Belt and Road Initiative), the US’ approach, under Trump, rests on stability through control.

In reality, both the strategies treat fragile regions as testing grounds for great-power competition; just their methods differ. China builds links, weaving trade and infrastructure to create dependency; the US builds hierarchies through military and institutional control.

Implications for India and the Global South

Well, the Gaza plan serves as no role model of peace and stability; rather, it aspires to shake the world order rooted in pluralism, mutual respect, and self-determination. When nations are rooting for partnership, not patronage, the plan glorifies a language of conditional peace and managerial authority. It appears that the global conversation is being pulled backwards, towards a unipolar reflex in an increasingly multipolar era.

Most importantly, the plan redefines the idea of sovereignty itself. In the backdrop of the promises inscribed in the plan, the right to self-determination is no longer considered as a right, but........

© News18