By Marc Eliot Stein, September 26, 2026, World BEYOND War
“Beyond Borders” is the theme of World BEYOND War’s #NoWar2026 online conference next month. To preview this conference, I spoke with Khawaja Hammad Akbar, a peace builder in Pakistan who will be leading a panel on case studies of militarized borders and demilitarized zones with speakers from Korea, Gaza and the US/Mexico border.
What does it mean to seek a world “beyond borders”? To begin exploring this question, I asked Khawaja about his own background and motivations for antiwar work and discovered that his interest began (as it so often does) with his desire to understand his own family legacy. As we talked about the devastation and trauma left behind by the 1947 India/Pakistan partition, a familiar pattern became clear: the borders of the past still imprison all of us.
We also talked about popular attitudes about militarism in our own societies, about our hopes for a better future, and about the inspiration of past teachers of peace like Syed Ahmad Khan. The closing music is an excerpt from a live recording of “Ballot Box” by Penboy, a singer and spoken word poet who will be performing at the #NoWar2026 conference which takes place October 23, 24 and 25.
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