As the liberal world order teeters on the edge of collapse, a chorus of unease is echoing across Europe. By now it is clear that the era of farming out hard security is over, and EU leaders acknowledge that they must rise to the demands of hard power global
competition.
By Wojciech Przybylski and Goran Buldioski
As the liberal world order weakens and Russia’s aggression in Ukraine persists, Europe must shift from soft to hard power to protect its democracies. This requires bolstering military strength and public resolve amid rising threats, with mainstream parties adapting their strategies. Public opinion polls expose a harsh truth: only one in three Europeans is willing to fight for their country, with youth showing the greatest reluctance. Pro-democratic parties must respond decisively.
The proposal outlines three policy clusters: firstly, military preparedness needs citizen engagement through education linked to economic opportunity. Secondly, politicians can gain backing for defence spending by tying it to economic benefits. Thirdly, liberal leaders must reject populist appeasement and champion a pro-democracy stance.
Wojciech Przybylski is a political analyst, leading strategic foresight on EU affairs. He is the editor of Visegrad Insight and president of the Res Publica Foundation in Warsaw, an advisory board member at LSE IDEAS Ratiu Forum, European Forum of New Ideas, and a Europe’s Future Fellow at IWM (Institute of Human Sciences). He has been a guest lecturer at the Foreign Service Institute for the US government, Warsaw University, and CEU Democracy Institute. He has co-authored, among others, Understanding Central Europe (Routledge, 2017), On the Edge: Poland (Culturescapes, 2019), and Let’s Agree on Poland (Oxford University Press, press) and has been published widely in the international press.
Goran Buldioski is a Senior Fellow at the Hertie School, University of Governance in Berlin. In more than 19 years at the Open Society Foundations (OSF), Goran held key leadership roles in Europe and Central Asia, was Director of the OSF Berlin Office, and Director of the Think Tank Fund. He has a strong political science and international relations background and is recognised for his leadership in advancing democratic governance, policy research, and social justice across Europe. His articles have been published in Foreign Policy, Politico, EurAktiv, EU Observer, Fokus, and Tagesspiegel, among others. He is a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).