THE SOCIOCULTURAL AND POLITICAL CHALLENGES IN THE BUILDING OF EUROPEAN SECURITY RESILIENCE

Abstract

For 80 years, the United States of America dominated the world in terms of leadership in creating a global security system and overseeing its functioning. After World War II, two opposing political regime systems emerged – liberal democracies and communist dictatorships. Their competition during the Cold War had to find political and economic ways to avoid total war in Europe.

The further development of security resilience in the European countries differed significantly. With the help of the United States, the countries of Western Europe rebuilt their economies and established NATO, a common security resilience organization. This ensured their ability to create liberal democracies and market economies. However, gradually the development of their security resilience became dependent on the political and military power of the United States. The societies of the Central and Eastern European countries occupied by the Soviet Union resisted communist regimes: at first militarily and later intellectually, in an effort to preserve their cultural identity. Therefore, these countries focused not on developing security resilience, but on fighting for their cultural independence.

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union enabled the countries of Central and Eastern Europe to restore their sovereignty and independence through democratic elections, to free themselves from Communist regimes and to create liberal democracies. The established US monopoly in the world guaranteed peace in Europe and solutions to the challenges of developing a market economy dominated the political agenda of the European Union. With the disappearance of the threat of communism, the growing economic power of the EU was perceived as a guarantor of European security. But this period of peace ended in 2008, when, in the context of the global and US financial crisis, the Russian Federation began a new period of escalation of military power in Europe. It now seeks to destroy the sovereignty of Ukraine and occupy it.

Military and humanitarian assistance from the US and European countries has helped Ukraine not to lose the war so far. But at the beginning of 2025, the new US administration radically changed its geopolitical orientation and assistance to Ukraine, which has caused great concern among European countries about their security resilience, since neither individual nor joint military power may be sufficient to resist the Russian Federation’s further escalation of the war in Europe. The question of the attitude of the societies of the European Union countries towards the future of security also arose: do they understand the need to actively engage in the creation of security in Europe? There are no research-based answers to this question yet. More research is urgently needed on the socio-cultural and political challenges associated with building security resilience in European countries.

The aim of the study is to reveal the challenges inherent in reflecting on the political and social reality of the European Union countries in creating a joint security and defense framework in the context of the escalation of Russian’s war on Ukraine. The current study presents its conclusions.