Sep 25, 2026 · 29 min · 10 segments
Europe’s security order is evolving, but is the Old Continent still able to build the capabilities, resilience and political confidence needed to defend it? Wojciech Przybylski speaks with Florence…
Florence GaubGuest
Wojciech PrzybylskiHostSpeaking of solidarity and burden sharing, does it mean that the European nations, members of NATO, are now at the pace that allows for this window gap to be closed? Well, not immediately, but...
but in, what, five years or so, in your view, or there are some hiccups that may be dependent on political turmoil, elections, where if we open up a discussion of our vulnerabilities, maybe things that we can speed up, that is also most welcome, but usually we try to find what can go wrong.
So to help out colleagues who want to attack us, we should maybe also not to help them.
But can we speak more openly about our vulnerabilities? Do we need more talk about certain, I don't know, wide book of our vulnerabilities in Europe? or we need to flex our muscles and show more of our leadership in defense, which is the right way in terms of strategic communication and posture these days.
I'm not sure you're aware of it yourself, but I think because we are democracies, we are very surprising to our opponents.
So I think, yes, we have to live with the fact that as democracies, you know, democracy is the only political system that opens the future up.
It says, I promise you, you will get to vote, and then we'll decide from there.
And that's tiring sometimes, but it also means that there's always an element of surprise for ourselves, but also for our opponents.
You know this, with every election, we don't know You know, we have a French election next year, we know that Marine Le Pen isn't fond of NATO, and there's others down the line, so the reality is, in democratic systems, there is no certainty in this regard.
On the one hand, I think, There is a European tendency to, how do you say, self-flagellate, to feel bad about ourselves in public and to constantly share all our vulnerabilities with everyone.
This is why I'm saying, you know, this is what makes us good is that we can exchange these views and so forth.
So I think it's probably a mixture of what you said and taking into account that reality.
I don't think we should, you know, adopt a fake strongman rhetoric that would match Putin.
But on the other hand, there is a lot of strength in what our leaders say, you know.
well, I was going to say merits, but maybe that's not the best example, but political leaders in our countries can make statements knowing that they've been elected and they have the legitimacy of this vote behind them, something that dictators cannot say.
Speaking of solidarity and burden sharing, does it mean that the European nations, members of NATO, are now at the pace that allows for this window gap to be closed? Well, not immediately, but...
but in, what, five years or so, in your view, or there are some hiccups that may be dependent on political turmoil, elections, where if we open up a discussion of our vulnerabilities, maybe things that we can speed up, that is also most welcome, but usually we try to find what can go wrong.
So to help out colleagues who want to attack us, we should maybe also not to help them.
But can we speak more openly about our vulnerabilities? Do we need more talk about certain, I don't know, wide book of our vulnerabilities in Europe? or we need to flex our muscles and show more of our leadership in defense, which is the right way in terms of strategic communication and posture these days.
I'm not sure you're aware of it yourself, but I think because we are democracies, we are very surprising to our opponents.
So I think, yes, we have to live with the fact that as democracies, you know, democracy is the only political system that opens the future up.
It says, I promise you, you will get to vote, and then we'll decide from there.
And that's tiring sometimes, but it also means that there's always an element of surprise for ourselves, but also for our opponents.
You know this, with every election, we don't know You know, we have a French election next year, we know that Marine Le Pen isn't fond of NATO, and there's others down the line, so the reality is, in democratic systems, there is no certainty in this regard.
On the one hand, I think, There is a European tendency to, how do you say, self-flagellate, to feel bad about ourselves in public and to constantly share all our vulnerabilities with everyone.
This is why I'm saying, you know, this is what makes us good is that we can exchange these views and so forth.
So I think it's probably a mixture of what you said and taking into account that reality.
I don't think we should, you know, adopt a fake strongman rhetoric that would match Putin.
But on the other hand, there is a lot of strength in what our leaders say, you know.
well, I was going to say merits, but maybe that's not the best example, but political leaders in our countries can make statements knowing that they've been elected and they have the legitimacy of this vote behind them, something that dictators cannot say.
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