Our colleague Camille Bernheim attended the 11th Women, Peace and Security Forum hosted by the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN) in The Hague from 29 September to 2 October 2026. Under the title “Security reimagined”, the event offered a powerful alternative to the dominant global security discourse.

“ICAN managed to ask the right questions at the right time,” says Camille: “If you were in charge, what would you change to reimagine security?” At the event she shared some of the key insights that we have developed at PeaceWomen Across the Globe:

• A poster at the Peace Palace, the venue of the event, showed the steep increase in armament in a single year between 1910 and 1911 in ten countries, including the United States, Russia and the United Kingdom. The text challenged the necessity of this increase. “This seems all too familiar. It shows us that these conversations are not new,” she says. PeaceWomen Across the Globe continues to make the point: there is always a choice to be made. War is never inevitable.

• How do we foster the right conversations with the right people? “We talk about bridging silos and being part of the conversation about hard security and armament. Women, Peace and Security experts in the security apparatus are often important allies, but the conversation cannot stop there.”  Peacebuilders must dare to have the uncomfortable conversations with defence ministries and security policymakers.

• Security through weapons versus security through peacebuilding is a real dilemma that we need to navigate. However, arms do not make the world safer in the long run. Peace needs civic space and investment in peacebuilders, community organisations and dialogue.

This is how PeaceWomen Across the Globe reimagines security.

Thank you to ICAN and WO-MEN, the Dutch Gender Platform, for fostering these important conversations and for convening this space.

Read more about our position on demilitarisation.