Two Perspectives on Europe’s Changing Security Landscape

As Europe navigates the most consequential security crisis in decades, the new “KonKoop InSecurity Report“  offers fresh perspectives on what a sustainable peace order could look like—and how societies at the heart of the conflict perceive the path ahead. The Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Vienna has contributed two articles to this report on this important topic. 

In Prerequisites and Tools for Facilitating a New Peace and Security Order in Europe, Simon Weiß outlines a forward-looking framework for rebuilding stability in the OSCE area. Drawing on the FES–GCSP Peace Matrix, the article argues that Europe needs more than deterrence and crisis management: it requires a structured, sequenced strategy that links de-escalation, political bargaining, and long-term institutional stabilization. It highlights the relevance of quiet diplomacy in times of highly polarized public debate and takes inspiration from the diplomatic process that led to the Helsinki Final Act. The text also explores how Ukraine’s integration, revitalized arms control, and renewed cooperative security formats could help shape a more predictable and resilient security order.

Complementing this macro-strategic lens, the second contribution—Public Attitudes in Ukraine and Russia Towards the War and European Security, co-authored by Alexandra Dienes and Simon Weiß, turns to the societal dynamics that influence political choices in wartime. Based on opinion data, the text illustrates how Ukrainians and Russians interpret the war, assess future risks, and imagine post-war security arrangements. These societal perceptions, the authors argue, will profoundly shape any political settlement and the viability of long-term peacebuilding efforts. 

Taken together, the two contributions from FES in the “KonKoop InSecurity Report” provide a dual perspective: one strategic, one societal; one focused on the architecture of peace, the other on the people whose acceptance is essential for its durability.