In this episode of Peace Matters, we examine the growing challenges facing European security. As defence budgets rise, U.S. priorities shift, and crises stretch from Ukraine to the Arctic and beyond, security decisions are increasingly made under pressure—and often at a distance from public debate.
Drawing on perspectives from Europe’s Eastern Flank as well as EU governance and democratic accountability, the discussion explores whether Europe is emerging as an independent security actor, how defence trade-offs are communicated to citizens, and where democratic legitimacy fits into rapid crisis decision-making. From NATO burden-sharing and sanctions to threat perceptions, internal divisions, and public trust, the episode asks a central question: how can Europe defend itself while remaining democratically accountable in an age of uncertainty?
Guests:
Teresa Coratella is Deputy Head and a Policy Fellow of the Rome office of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a pan-European think tank. She works on Italian foreign policy, European populists and Eurosceptics parties, disinformation and hybrid threats. Half Italian and half Polish, she also follows closely Polish foreign politics as well as the Visegrad group. She is a College of Europe and IVLP Alumna as well as mentor of Women in International Security Italy.
Brigadier General Tomasz K. Kowalik is the Deputy Chief of Staff Support at NATO’s Multinational Corps Northeast in Szczecin, Poland. A career officer in the Polish Armed Forces since 1993, he has held senior roles across Poland’s Ministry of National Defence, the Polish General Staff, and NATO Headquarters in Brussels, where he served as Special Assistant to the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee. He previously directed Poland’s Department of Military Foreign Affairs, overseeing bilateral defence relations and defence attachés worldwide. A graduate of West Point, with a PhD in pedagogy, Brig. Gen. Kowalik is also a published author on NATO security and defence transformation.
Moderation:
Gjergj Loka, Project Assistant at the IIP
The episode was recorded on 28 January 2026.