To mark International Women’s Day, we proudly launch our new publication
Women, Peace and Security (WPS): Holding the Line, a timely and urgent contribution to the global conversation on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) at a moment when the agenda is under unprecedented geopolitical, ideological and financial strain.
This publication arrives after a milestone year in 2025 when we celebrated the 25th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, a landmark commitment recognising that peace and security are unattainable without the participation, protection, and leadership of women. Over the past quarter century, governments, international organisations, NATO, civil society organisations, and communities have advanced the WPS agenda in significant ways. Yet today, those hard-won gains face serious pressures, from intensifying conflicts and hybrid threats to development aid cuts, democratic backsliding and coordinated pushback against gender equality and women’s rights. This is not a rhetorical call to action; it is an everyday reality.
Based on closed-door discussions on the margins of the June 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague, held at the offices of WO=MEN: Dutch Gender Platform and supported by the Economic and Social Research Council Impact Accelerator Account (ESRC IAA) via funds held at Newcastle University and King’s College London, WPS: Holding the Line brings together insights and practical tools from policymakers, military leaders, academics, and civil society experts to examine how the WPS agenda is playing out in real time across regions experiencing acute security challenges.
The publication explores the widening gap between global commitments and lived realities and highlights the courageous work of those who continue to uphold and advance WPS principles on the ground, even as political and civic space narrows.
Launching this work on International Women’s Day underscores a simple truth: the WPS agenda is neither optional nor a symbolic addon, it is central to peace, justice, and human security. Its transformative potential must be protected and its goals amplified. Ignoring WPS only increases instability, delays justice and hinders recovery and reconciliation.
Around the world, women are holding the line every day, often amid repression and the most dangerous circumstances. From the corridors of power to grassroot spaces, from decision-making chambers to village squares, they sustain communities under fire, defend democratic values, and shape responses to rapidly evolving threats. This publication recognises their leadership and calls for renewed political will to safeguard and strengthen the WPS framework for the next 25 years.
At a time when polarisation and insecurity threaten to overshadow progress, WPS: Holding the Line is both a warning and a timely call to action: to protect what has been built, to resist rollback, and to reaffirm that women’s full participation is essential to lasting peace and security. Delaying action costs lives, compounds harm and deepens inequality amid geopolitical uncertainty.
This upcoming weekend, we celebrate International Women’s Day by honouring this leadership, and by reaffirming our collective commitment to a world where women’s rights, voices, and security are non-negotiable.
Read the publication here.
For more information:
Katharine A.M. Wright:
katharine.a.m.wright@newcastle.ac.uk
Emine Kaya:
e.kaya@wo-men.nl
Sorana-Cristina Jude:
sorana-cristina.jude@kcl.ac.uk
