The West Africa Peace and Security Network’s annual workshop “New Thinking on West African Security Challenges” was held at the University of Portsmouth on the 17th-18th of May 2018. The workshop discussed new approaches on security challenges in West Africa including highly relevant topics such as the role of foreign powers for West African peace and security; the AU and ECOWAS’ approaches to address peace and security on the continent; non-state actors, violent extremism, security and knowledge production in West Africa. Participants included academics and experts from West Africa, the UK and Europe. For more details, please see the workshop programme.