Margaret MacMillan to Receive the 2026 IPA | AIP
Strategic Leadership Award

The International Peace Alliance | Alliance Internationale de la Paix (IPA | AIP) is honoured to announce that distinguished historian, author, and international affairs scholar Margaret MacMillan will receive the 2026 IPA | AIP Strategic Leadership Award in recognition of her exceptional contributions to strategic thought, international affairs, and the global understanding of war, diplomacy, leadership, and the forces that shape peace and conflict among nations.

“Margaret MacMillan has helped the world better understand the forces that lead nations toward conflict — or away from it. Strategic leadership begins with historical understanding, intellectual clarity, and the wisdom to illuminate pathways toward peace.”

— The Honourable Dr. Alvin Curling

President & Chair, International Peace Alliance | Alliance Internationale de la Paix (IPA | AIP) 

The award will be presented during the Peace Ambassadors Awards Gala & Grand Ball, the closing celebration of the 2026 International Peace Festival, on Saturday, October 24, 2026, at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, Toronto, Canada.

Born in Toronto, Margaret MacMillan is one of the world’s most respected historians and public intellectuals, internationally recognized for her scholarship on war, diplomacy, empire, geopolitics, and international decision-making. She served as Warden of St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, and later as Professor of International History at Oxford University, where her academic leadership shaped generations of scholars and policymakers engaged in global affairs.

Margaret MacMillan’s body of work has profoundly influenced public and academic understanding of the causes of war and the fragile architecture of peace. Her landmark international bestseller Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World became one of the most important modern examinations of diplomacy and peacemaking, offering critical insight into the decisions that reshaped the world following the First World War.

Her later works, including The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914 and War: How Conflict Shaped Us, further established her as a leading interpreter of the strategic, political, and human forces that drive international conflict. At a time marked by geopolitical fragmentation, renewed great-power tensions, armed conflict, and uncertainty regarding international institutions, her work offers vital perspective on the dangers of strategic miscalculation, the importance of diplomacy, and the consequences of leadership decisions made in moments of crisis.

Her contributions have been recognized through numerous international honours and distinctions. Margaret MacMillan is a Companion of the Order of Canada, one of the nation’s highest civilian honours, recognizing her exceptional contribution to Canadian intellectual and public life. She has received multiple honorary doctorates and prestigious literary and scholarly distinctions, reflecting the global significance of her work in historical scholarship and international affairs.

Beyond academia, Margaret MacMillan has played an important public role in advancing informed civic and international discourse. Through lectures, media commentary, public policy engagement, and international speaking, she has consistently contributed to a broader understanding of the historical forces shaping peace, conflict, diplomacy, and global governance.

The 2026 IPA | AIP Strategic Leadership Award recognizes Margaret MacMillan’s intellectual leadership in advancing strategic understanding in service of peace, diplomacy, international cooperation, and responsible global leadership. Her work exemplifies the belief that lasting peace requires not only goodwill, but strategic wisdom, historical understanding, and thoughtful international engagement.