By Phill Gittins, World BEYOND War, July 5, 2026

World BEYOND War joined the Movement for the Abolition of War’s Strategy Weekend in Clun, Shropshire, from 3–5 July, as MAW marks its 25th anniversary. These gatherings have brought MAW members and friends together over much of the past two decades for reflection, strategy, and renewal.

The gathering brought together peace activists from different parts of the country, including Durham, Leeds, London, Oxford, and elsewhere. Participants were connected with MAW and a wider peace and anti-war community, including Veterans for Peace, CND, the Global Campaign on Military Spending, Campaign Against Arms Trade, Pax Christi, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Quakers, Rethinking Security, and others.

The Friday programme invited discussion of MAW at 25, including the legacy of the Hague Appeal, current progress, and the main obstacles and challenges facing efforts to abolish war. It also provided space for exchange, networking, and reflection on what comes next.

World BEYOND War’s Education Director, Dr Phill Gittins, was invited to offer brief reflections on challenges facing war abolition work, including how to better engage young people. He drew on World BEYOND War’s education work, including Peace Education and Action for Impact, and shared ways to get involved in NoWar2026 and the annual Peace Wave. He also shared key messages from World BEYOND War’s forthcoming book, From a War System to a Global Peace System, alongside reflections from recent Council of Europe-related peace education work.

A key theme was the need to move beyond reactive, event-based anti-war work and focus more clearly on the wider War System that keeps producing war. This means challenging militarised security, making alternatives more visible, and connecting war abolition with wider peace, justice, development, climate, democracy, human rights, and public-service concerns.

The task ahead is not only to oppose the wars being waged today, although that remains essential. It is to transform the systems preparing the wars of tomorrow — and to build the conditions for a global peace system.

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