In his opinion piece in Dutch national newspaper De Volkskrant, Casper Wits argues that the ‘peace’ referred to by participants at Sunday’s National Peace Protest amounts to subjugation for Ukraine. This is because reduced Western military support for Kyiv puts Russia in an excellent position to continue the war, with the help of China, North Korea and Iran.
Casper Wits raises an important point. Even in the context of the United States’ withdrawal from NATO, as a pacifist I understand the desire to arm the Netherlands and Europe against the aggression of the Russian government. Let us not lose sight, however, of the fact that what may be defence for us can be perceived as intimidation by others. As the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) notes, estimated global military expenditure rose in 2024 for the tenth consecutive year to 2.7 trillion dollars, driven in part by the war between Russia and Ukraine. The 9.4 per cent increase in total military expenditure in 2024 pushed estimated global expenditure to the highest level ever recorded by SIPRI.
This massive build-up of armaments is in keeping with the old adage that brute force once again seems to rule the world. ‘Might makes right’, as it is described in the concept note for the ‘Security Reimagined 2026 ICAN Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Forum’, which is taking place next week at the Peace Palace. According to the organisers, the event “brings together the expertise of ‘women peacebuilders’ who have negotiated ceasefires, prevented recruitment by extremist groups, and rebuilt social ties following acts of violence. From the deputy mayor of Bethlehem, who teaches peaceful methods of conflict resolution in war-torn Palestine, to the displaced mother leading the women’s movement in occupied eastern Ukraine. The aim is to put effective peace processes back on the global political agenda at a time characterised by armament and war.” These courageous women of peace deserve to be heard and to have a voice in peace processes. Let us strengthen the gentle forces for peace worldwide.
Our Prime Minister, Rob Jetten, also showed courage in his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly, in which he spoke out in defence of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. He spoke out in support of international law, even though the Netherlands is a relatively small country compared to the nation that seeks to dismantle the International Criminal Court.
The Defence Readiness Act (Wet op de defensiegereedheid) is intended to give the Ministry of Defence greater scope to prepare for war within the Netherlands. According to Minister Yesilgöz, the harsh truth is that “Putin is not impressed by a nature reserve. We see what is happening in Ukraine and we want our people to be ready to ensure your safety and mine,” said the Minister of Defence.
The harsh truth is also that the climate and nature simply follow their own course. This was demonstrated by the many wildfires worldwide and the floods in Nepal this summer. A defence exercise in April this year caused a wildfire at the ’t Harde military training ground. My message to world leaders is: “Don’t wage war on a burning planet”.
Peace SOS is a grateful supporter of the National Peace Protest, and we see the peace demonstration as a call to President Putin and all other world leaders to end wars and prevent new ones. It is a call for peace in an increasingly harsh world ravaged by wars and the climate crisis. With, amongst other things, 35,000 deaths caused by the heatwave in Europe, numerous wildfires and drought, this summer has shown us that the climate crisis is happening right now. This summer also made it clear, through the OpenAI and Hugging Face incident, that AI agents cannot always be kept under control. This was also the case with the hack of the Australian government by OpenAI’s AI agents.
Now is the time for world leaders to unite for world peace, to work together to tackle the climate crisis, to end global hunger and to take measures to ensure that AI does not spiral further out of control. In short, it is high time we looked after one another, the most vulnerable amongst us, and nature.
Hopefully, a world in which all children can play will soon become a reality.
Author: May-May Meijer
Photo: The peace demonstration Sunday 27th September 2026 in Amsterdam ‘Stop the war fever’ (Stop de oorlogskoorts).
Note: This article was first published in Dutch under the title: ‘Wereldleiders dienen zich te verenigen voor vrede en de klimaatcrisis en honger te bestrijden’ on the Joop BNNVARA website on 26th September 2026.
Translated using DeepL.com (free version) and corrected by Kumar Jamdagni