Is true peace actually possible?

As wars rage around the globe, peace can seem like a fleeting ideal, rather than something humanity can ever actually achieve. Some people hold onto it as a real possibility, a deeply human endeavour still worth striving for. Others see it as a fragile ideal, repeatedly shattered by harsh realities. One thing is certain: peace is fleeting, and that’s painfully clear in 2025, as new , new conflicts flare up and old ones intensify.

This tension between hope and reality defines how we understand peace today. And as peace scholar Johan Galtung argues, true peace is more than just the absence of war; it’s the presence of deeper global harmony. But by that standard, has the world ever truly known peace?

In Chasing Peace, a special three-part miniseries of Sideways, we confront a fundamental question: is true peace possible? And if it is, what does it take to achieve and sustain? Through voices of peacebuilders, negotiators, scholars, and unconventional thinkers, we explore whether hope for a peaceful future can endure in a world marked by escalating conflicts.

Listen to Sideways first on BBC Sounds.