Can Ukraine Build National Resilience?

Since 2014, civil society in Ukraine has been at the forefront of the national response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of war in the Donbas region. The work of volunteer movements and civil society organizations (CSOs) have made significant contributions to national security and, in some cases, compensated for the weakness of state authorities.

But according to a new report by Estonia’s International Center for Defense and Security (ICDS), gaps between the state and civil society could threaten the development of Ukraine’s national resilience.

ICDS defines “national resilience” as “the ability of a nation to recover, adapt, function and positively develop while under intense negative influence or crisis.” In the case of Ukraine, this means the country’s capacity to develop a “whole of society” approach to national security that includes cooperation between civil society and the state.

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“The concept of national resilience implies forming a relationship of trust and collaboration between the state authorities and civil society, and the lack of mutual awareness and respect is becoming a significant obstacle to achieving this. There are gaps between the state and civil society in Ukraine whose existence in the national security domain is detrimental to national resilience,” the study explains.

Focusing on regions most exposed to Russian aggression – that is Ukraine’s east, southeast and along the contact line – ICDS researchers aimed at understanding regional and local layers of security. The report also includes a sociological survey conducted in 20 local communities and municipalities in Ukraine’s eastern and southeastern regions of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv.

The survey reveals that while 59% of respondents expressed fears associated with the ongoing war in Donbas, 54% saw the security situation as improved compared to 2014-2015.

That being said, the majority of respondents also thought that national (57%), regional (57%) and municipal (53%) authorities do not pay sufficient attention to security issues.

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While volunteers movement and CSOs are identified as the most trusted institutions among respondents (55%), the patrol police (52%), State Emergency Service of Ukraine (52%) and the Armed Forces of Ukraine (49%) also enjoy high degrees of trust.

Meanwhile, the most distrusted were municipal councils with 53% distrust and regional administrations with 51%.

The study also identifies five major gaps between the state authorities and civil society related to values, objectives, capacities, motivation and communication, all of which “make it extremely difficult to achieve greater unity of effort, synergy and critical mass required to cope with hybrid threats to Ukraine’s national security.”

“With the sense of acute crisis having subsided, there is a growing risk that civil society will be reduced to the role of observers and ineffectual critics of the government’s policies and actions, instead of constituting a vital pillar of national resilience and a cornerstone of a whole-of-society approach to national security,” the study warns.

Overall, the study concludes that civil society in Ukraine still has enormous potential – but the state authorities need to make better use of it to build national resilience.

The full report, titled “A Route to National Resilience: Building Whole-of-Society Security in Ukraine” can be read here.

/Written by Eilish Hart