Commentary
Democratic Security
Post-war Ukraine Holds the Key to European Defence
5 August 2026
On 18 December, we brought together Polish and Slovak civil society leaders and policymakers to discuss why civil society is not ‘nice-to-have’ but crucial in fostering public trust and support, especially during crises.
The discussion was based on the latest Visegrad Insight policy report, ‘Democracies at War. War on Democracies’. Find it HERE.
The big picture
The session treated civil society less as a ‘nice-to-have’ and more as critical infrastructure for democratic resilience, especially in a security environment where hostile actors target civic leaders, institutions and trust itself. Participants repeatedly returned to a single logic: if resilience is built before a crisis, it can be activated during one.
What was discussed
A strategic frame for the next five years. The opening set out a foresight lens shaped by an intensifying geopolitical context and an increasingly ideological struggle inside Europe.
Four broad political trajectories were used to organise the debate:
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