TED-CMI Webinar Recording - The Intersection of Democracy, Peace and Security: A European Approach Responding to Global Transformation

As Europe is confronted by neighbouring wars, hybrid threats and growing geopolitical instability, democracy, peace and security are increasingly being drawn into a single political and strategic debate.

The recent Team Europe Democracy (TED) and CMI - Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation, webinar on “The Intersection of Democracy, Peace and Security – A European Approach Responding to Global Transformation” brought together contributions from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland; ODI | ODI Global; Carnegie Europe; ECDPM; the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (Hybrid CoE); Fondation Hirondelle and DG INTPA to explore how Europe’s accelerating “security turn” is reshaping approaches to democratic governance, civic resilience and peacebuilding. 

A shared caution emerged: Whether the growing emphasis on deterrence, defence and preparedness risks narrowing understandings of security and marginalising long-term investments in democratic legitimacy, civic space and conflict prevention. At the same time, participants repeatedly stressed that democratic resilience, public trust and information integrity are no longer peripheral governance concerns, but central security assets. The challenge is no longer whether democracy, peace and security are linked, but how Europe operationalises that interdependence without allowing peace, inclusion and democratic accountability to disappear from the agenda.