What does peace look like in the world today as we race ever faster towards the future? At UNGA81 High-Level Week in New York, the PII team was reminded that peace is not always found in the places we expect. It can emerge in a conversation about artificial intelligence and energy, in the creative language of fashion and design, around a table where both public and private leaders discuss sustainable development, and in the stories of diverse people turning vision into action.

Across different gatherings, one message kept surfacing: peace is not simply something we hope to achieve. It is something we build through trust, inclusion, creativity, partnership, and courageous leadership.

PII Founder & President, Barbara Winston attended the Atlantic Council’s conversation with Exelon CEO Calvin Butler, where content focused on the extraordinary transformation underway in the energy sector as AI and data centers drive a surging demand for electricity. But beneath all the talk on cutting-edge technology and economics was a profoundly human question… how do we ensure that communities are partners in the future being built around them? Butler captured it beautifully when he said that “projects must be done with communities instead of to them.” Now that is a principle of peace.

Innovation without inclusion can create division and technology without trust cannot endure. When people have a voice in shaping the changes that affect their lives, progress becomes something that they can own rather than something imposed upon them.

At Fashion 4 Development’s 14th Annual Official First Ladies Luncheon, PII saw another powerful dimension of peace, the power of creativity and culture to bring people together where they might not otherwise. First ladies, royals, ministers, ambassadors, philanthropists, designers and changemakers alike all gathered to celebrate fashion not simply as an industry, but as a bridge across cultures. The event honored the legacy of Oscar de la Renta and celebrated remarkable agents of change, while a new partnership between Fashion 4 Development and the Arab Fashion Council opened the door to even more cultural exchange between nations.

Sometimes diplomacy begins not with a negotiation, but with a conversation sparked by beauty, heritage, creativity, or a simple shared story.  For culture often speaks a universal language that transcends formal diplomacy and ushers parties through the ‘doors of peace’ and onto the ‘catwalk of action.’

PII Founder, Barbara Winston also took part in the Family Offices for Sustainable Development Summit at the United Nations, where the conversation turned toward the enormous work still ahead in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. A decade after their launch and with only five years remaining to reach the 2030 Agenda, the imperative was clear… we must act together and quickly.

Peace cannot flourish where poverty, exclusion, instability, and lack of opportunity persist. Sustainable development is therefore not merely an economic or humanitarian objective but rather part of the DNA of peace itself; achieving it will require unlikely partners to sit at the same table much before they think they might be ready. The world is calling us, but will we answer?

At the 2026 Agents of Change Awards Luncheon, leaders including Nobel Peace Laureate, Timor-Leste President José Manuel Ramos-Horta, and former UN General Assembly President Dr. Srgjan Kerim were recognized alongside changemakers from philanthropy, business, health, and diplomacy. There’s tremendous power in recognition and when we honor our partners and others who turn vision into action, we then tell the world that positive change is possible, probable, and inevitable.

The week finally culminated at the Atlantic Council’s Global Citizen Awards, where some 800+ leaders from government, business, civil society, and the arts gathered at a moment of profound global transition. But the question posed that evening was bigger than any individual award. If the world is moving between orders, what will we build next?

This question belongs to all of us. In a divided world, partnership is an act of courage, listening is an act of leadership, inclusion is an investment in stability, and creativity becomes a bridge. Technology might be a tool for human flourishing and capital can become a catalyst for opportunity; every one of these choices might then move us closer to peace and this was perhaps the greatest lesson PII carried away from UNGA81… peace is not waiting for us somewhere in the future. It is being created, or diminished, in the choices we make today. In boardrooms and ballrooms, at the United Nations and in our communities, through technology, culture, investment, recognition, and leadership, the opportunity is enormous and the invitation is universal. So let us build with people and may we build across our differences for a future where everyone has a place, because peace can only be built together.