Next week, a group of young people will lace up their hiking boots and set off through the Scottish Highlands to enjoy the dramatic landscapes of Loch Lomond and to tackle some of the most complex questions of our time: How can long-term peace be sustained in a world where nuclear weapons still underpin national security? What risks do these weapons pose not just today, but for generations yet to come? And how can civil society, law, and politics respond when global arms control is in decline?
These are the guiding questions of this year’s Walkshop, the fifth edition of the Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations’ educational hiking programme. From 26 June to 1 July 2025, a group of young, international participants will walk nearly 60 km from Milngavie to Helensburgh, tracing a route through forests, hills, and towns near Faslane, home to part of the UK’s Trident nuclear weapons system. As we hike, we listen to curated audio learning blocks, to each other, and to the landscapes we move through. And we stop for field visits, expert input, and public dialogue to deepen our understanding of what peace means in a nuclear-armed world.
When our team began designing this Walkshop two years ago, we agreed that nuclear weapons with all their contemporary political salience, ethical urgency, and long-term consequences, needed to be at the heart of our next programme. With arms control regimes crumbling, new arms races emerging, and technological advances outpacing regulation, the questions surrounding nuclear security have become both more fragmented and more pressing. At the same time, the intergenerational dimensions of nuclear policy remain strikingly underexplored. This Walkshop seeks to open space for both reflection and imagination: grounded in historical awareness, but oriented towards the future.
The route itself reflects this ambition. On our first hiking day, we begin walking the West Highland Way, reaching Drymen by evening for our first online discussion event, where international experts will assess the state of nuclear arms control in an increasingly nationalistic world (click here for the Zoom link). On Day 2, we continue to Balloch via the John Muir Way. On Day 3, we follow part of the Three Lochs Way to Helensburgh before travelling to the nearby Faslane Peace Camp, where we’ll speak with activists who have lived in protest against nuclear weapons for decades. That evening, our second public webinar will ask what risks today’s nuclear policies pose for future generations and what moral frameworks can help us think beyond deterrence (click here for the Zoom link).
On Day 4, the group returns to Glasgow and visits the Glasgow Women’s Library, whose archives document feminist peace activism from Greenham Common to today. Our final webinar that evening will look at Scotland’s role in the UK’s nuclear policy and its future, bringing together experts from politics, civil society, and academia (click here for the Zoom link).
Through it all, the Walkshop remains a space for thinking, walking, and learning together: slowly, critically, and across disciplines. At a time when political discourse is often dominated by urgency and escalation, we believe that education rooted in curiosity, place, and dialogue can offer a different rhythm.
We are deeply grateful to the experts who have agreed to join our public discussions, and to our partners at the Apfelbaum Foundation and ICAN Germany for their support. We look forward to hiking, learning, and thinking together, with our feet on the ground, and our eyes on the future.
Project page: https://walk-for-the-future.info/5.walkshop-peacekeeping/home.html
Discussion Evening registration: https://walk-for-the-future.info/5.walkshop-peacekeeping/discussion-evenings/