2020 challenged us in many ways pushing us towards new ways with greater leadership in our lives. WIIS Brussels accomplished a lot this past year as a community going on-line, offering new trainings, and attracting twice as many of you in our mentoring programme than in previous years. We launched our WIIS voices podcast, learning new skills. We supported our younger generation in creating WIIS campus in Brussels and devoted much attention to our WIIS@NATO community with monthly on-line meetings to discuss issues of international security. We also launched an important conversation around the future of work in our field and within our institutions.

The New Year brings new energy and a sense of reset. Millions around the globe are thinking new thoughts, hoping for change, new steps, or return to the familiar… The air is filling with the energy and excitement of new resolutions and hope. Our role as a community is to help as many of you as possible to live and secure your best life possible through daily connections and online presence. We want to help you make your contribution to international security a reality and facilitate change across the globe. Many more programmes, courses, consultations will be offered in 2021 to enrich your personal toolbox and become the best version of yourselves; to connect with like-minded women who want to contribute and support a more diverse, inclusive, and equal vision of a safer world in a post-Covid international environment.

Despite a year of social isolation, YOU – our community – came together to connect, contribute, and support each other in ways we would never have imagined a year ago. Thanks to you we are looking forward to 2021 in greater numbers, hoping to help you get to where you want to be in the field of international security and make your voice heard across generations. Thank you for joining us and renewing your membership. It is not always easy to create a safe space for ourselves, but together we can move and bring our ideas forward to thrive. I wish you a healthy and happy New Year. Until we meet again!