Join the Group of 78 – either virtually or in person- for our 2026 Annual Policy Conference October 9 & 10, at the University of Ottawa as we strive to design a new architecture for peace in our dangerous world.
There is no blueprint for peace in the world now taking shape. Perhaps it’s time we drew one.
What’s at stake:
Militaries. Arms makers. Fossil fuel giants. Billionaires. Coercive hegemons. They benefit from a world at war — and it’s costing us the resources we need for a livable, just future.
We know how to finance war. What would it take to finance peace with the same urgency?
What we’ll tackle:
- How middle-power governments, civil society, and Indigenous organizations can renew the institutions of peace, like the International Criminal Court and UN Peacekeeping forces, and invent new ones inspired by grassroots women and youth peacebuilding movements
- Defunding and disrupting the beneficiaries of war & redirecting capital toward peacemaking and sustainable development
- The role of AI and emerging tech in ethical governance & conflict transformation
- Canada’s massive investment in military spending in lockstep with an aggressive NATO, while ignoring the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, cutting foreign aid, and eliminating UN peacekeeping.
Who will be there:
The Group of 78 brings together people working across generations, sectors and borders to ask what institutions need strengthening, what needs dismantling, and what we need to build a lasting world peace.
Our three keynote speakers Peggy Mason (Rideau Institute), Dan Smith (UN Institute for Disarmament Research) and former Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy will be joined by other policymakers, scholars, activists and students to create a blueprint for a system of agile, resilient institutions fit for the 21st century. Together with you, we will produce concrete policy recommendations for the Government of Canada on how it can lead the implementation of this peace plan with urgency and purpose.
Don’t come to another conference about what’s broken. Build the architecture for 21st-century peace—now.
For further information, the evolving program and registration, click the buttons below