The Force That Waits for Peace

Here’s a paradox from the war in Ukraine.

Over the past year and a half, a group of mainly European countries calling itself the Coalition of the Willing, led by Britain and France, has been preparing a Multinational Force Ukraine. In January 2026 its leaders signed the Paris Declaration on security guarantees. By July 2026, the coalition said the force was ready to operate on land, in the air and at sea.

There’s one condition. It deploys only “once a credible cessation of hostilities is in place”.

In other words, a force built to protect a peace cannot help create one. It waits.

It’s easy to criticise that. But the caution is rational. Sending troops into an active war against a nuclear-armed state risks turning a regional war into something far worse. Every government involved knows it.

The Global Peace Alliance by Kizzi Nkwocha proposes the opposite sequence. Its model begins with an immediate ultimatum to all parties to stop fighting, backed by a combined force prepared to enforce it. The idea is deterrence through unity: if aggressors knew that the world would respond together, and quickly, far fewer wars would start.

The book is candid that powerful states would resist, and it suggests starting in regions where great powers have fewer direct interests, as a way of building a track record before tackling harder cases.

Which leaves the Ukraine question unresolved, and deliberately so. Deterrence only works if the threat is believed. And a threat is only believed if you’re prepared to carry it out.

So which is the greater risk: a peace force that won’t act until the fighting stops, or one that is willing to act while it’s still going on?

The Global Peace Alliance by Kizzi Nkwocha: https://a.co/d/07HzuID1

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