This is the fourth winter of the full-scale invasion. And it is very difficult. Russian ballistic missiles and drones deliberately target the energy grid, the very infrastructure that civilians depend on for survival. In January and February, temperatures plunge to minus 20 degrees Celsius in the country. Ukrainian cities are literally freezing. Millions of people have interrupted or no access to heat, water, or electricity. The UN has classified Russia’s actions as crimes against humanity. […]

I am writing these lines from a place where beauty and fear coexist. Protecting the Vohibola forest has been part of my life for years, and yet every day I wonder how long it is possible to hold out without losing oneself. I continue because giving up would be more painful than fear.

In eastern Madagascar, on the edge of the Indian Ocean, the Vohibola coastal forest is one of the last remaining intact forests of its kind. For local communities, it is not just an ecosystem to be preserved.  […]

J’écris ces lignes depuis un endroit où la beauté et la peur coexistent. Protéger la forêt de Vohibola fait partie de ma vie depuis des années, et pourtant, chaque jour, je me demande jusqu’où il est possible de tenir sans se perdre soi-même. Je continue parce que renoncer serait plus douloureux que la peur.

À l’est de Madagascar, en bordure de l’océan Indien, la forêt littorale de Vohibola est l’une des dernières forêts de ce type encore intactes. […]

Russia’s war against Ukraine is widely described as a war of attrition, fought not only on the battlefield, but across political, economic, social, and informational domains. In such a war, national survival depends on more than the strength of the armed forces. It also depends on whether society itself can withstand prolonged pressure, adapt under extreme conditions, and recover while the conflict is still ongoing. In Ukraine, civil society has become a decisive factor in this struggle. […]

As the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine enters its fifth year, Ukrainian resistance has mostly been viewed through the prism of its military capabilities. Yet, Ukrainian resistance goes far beyond the battlefield fronts, and the Ukrainian diaspora has played an essential role in the resistance by countering narratives, channeling resources, and mobilizing non-Ukrainian actors to their cause through protests, lobbying, academia, culture, and social media. […]

Since 2022, Russia’s war of aggression has unleashed overlapping crises—attacks on civilians, destruction of infrastructure, mass displacement, and economic downturn. Many assume such emergencies demand strict central control. Ukraine’s experience shows the opposite: resilience has come from polycentric governance—state and non-state actors working together, drawing on local knowledge, pooling resources, and strengthening social cohesion. […]

The transformation of contemporary conflicts reflects the profound crisis of the international order. The intensification of hybrid warfare—characterized by the combined use of non-military tactics, technological tools, and multidimensional strategies operating in the so-called “grey zone”—challenges traditional security frameworks and constrains state responses. Instruments such as disinformation, cyber warfare, and economic coercion do not operate in isolation; they aim to destabilize from within, eroding social cohesion and paralyzing institutional responses. […]

In a world marked by renewed invasion, democratic backsliding, coups, and hybrid warfare, governments are pouring vast resources into military deterrence. Yet one of the most powerful–and underdeveloped–tools of national defense remains largely absent from security policy: civilian-based defense. This is surprising, in light of the increasingly recognized role the Ukrainian people have played in resisting invasion and other forms of Russian aggression. […]

Two decades before the US scholar Gene Sharp impulsed strategic nonviolent conflict into an academic discipline, American literary figure John Steinbeck penned a human-sized fable about dignity and the collective power which derives from people’s desire to remain free. From a reading of his book 84 years later we can distill many hard lessons for everyone: from the defense establishment to pacificists and humanitarian actors. […]