Institutional innovation in European security, and the rise of ethical-analytical centres
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26565/2310-9513-2025-22-01Keywords:
European security architecture, hybrid threats, institutional resilience, ethical and normative governance, narrative competence, systems-based foresight, crisis preparedness, EU–NATO coordination, civil–military integration, strategic autonomy, policy–implementation gap, cross-sector governance, democratic safeguards, anticipatory and adaptive security governanceAbstract
Problem: Existing approaches to European security governance remain fragmented, focusing either on traditional deterrence or on sector-specific risk management. Such compartmentalization fails to capture the systemic complexity of hybrid threats, strategic volatility, and democratic vulnerabilities. Subject: This article examines the institutional design and function of ethical-analytical centres, focusing on the International Security Competence Center (ISCC) in Vienna and the Centre for Security Studies (CSS) in Kraków as innovative nodes within the evolving European security architecture. This perspective is enriched by insights from collaborating institutions such as the Military Institute of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, the Hayek Institute (Vienna), the University of Southern Denmark, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Ivan Franko National Universities (Lviv and Poltava), and the UN U4SSC initiative in Vienna, forming a transnational reference frame that links ethical education, systems modelling, governance diagnostics, and resilience research. Goal: The goal is to conceptualize an integrated framework that combines ethical governance–value orientation, narrative competence, democratic legitimacy–with systems-based foresight, including policy simulation, resilience modelling, and governance diagnostics. Objective: Specifically, the study addresses the lack of a unified institutional model that translates foresight outputs into operational procedures while safeguarding democratic principles and proposes a pathway to close this translation gap. Methods: The analysis applies system analysis to map cross-sector vulnerabilities, narrative analysis to examine the role of ethical literacy and public trust in crisis leadership, and comparative institutional analysis to assess complementarities between ISCC and CSS. Results: The article identifies key gaps in operational metrics for ethical and narrative competence, cross-domain integration, and the education-to-policy pipeline. It demonstrates how hybrid institutions like ISCC and CSS can address these deficits by embedding ethical reflection and systems analysis into European security governance. Conclusions: The proposed framework positions ethical-analytical centres as prototypes for anticipatory, value-coherent, and operationalizable security governance, offering measurable dimensions – readiness, legitimacy, and narrative integrity–to guide future research, education, and policy implementation.
References
Anagnostakis, D. (2025). “Taming the storm” of hybridity: The EU–NATO cooperation on hybrid threats. European Security Review, 18(2), 95–113. https://doi.org/10.1080/14702436.2025.2464636
AIV. (2024). Hybrid threats and societal resilience (Netherlands). Advice Council report. Retrieved from https://www.adviesraadinternationalevraagstukken.nl/binaries/adviesraadinternationalevraagstukken/documenten/publicaties/2024/06/04/hybride-dreigingen-en-maatschappelijke-weerbaarheid/aiv-hybrid-threats-and-societal-resilience-4jun2024.pdf
Bjørge, N., & Høiby, M. (2024). Contemporary research on hybrid threats. In Preparing for hybrid threats to security (pp. 13–35). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032617916-3
Building resilience to hybrid threats: Best practices in the Nordic-Baltic region (Hybrid CoE Working Paper 31). (2024). Hybrid CoE. Retrieved from https://www.hybridcoe.fi
Centre for Security Studies, ETH Zurich. (2025). About us. Retrieved from https://css.ethz.ch/en/center.html
Centre for Security Studies, Kraków University of Economics. (2025). About us. Retrieved from https://css.uek.krakow.pl/about-us/
Geneva Centre for Security Policy. (2024). Executive education and summer programmes. Retrieved from https://www.gcsp.ch
Genini, D. (2025). Countering hybrid threats: How NATO must adapt (again). SAGE Open, 13, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1177/2336825X251322719
International Security Competence Centre GmbH (ISCC Austria). (2021, August 4). Dr. Rüdiger Stix: Mord darf sich nicht lohnen. Retrieved from https://iscc.at/2021/08/04/dr-ruediger-stix-mord-darf-sich-nicht-lohnen/
International Security Competence Centre GmbH (ISCC Austria). (2021, August 4). Militär Ethik im Judo. Retrieved from https://iscc.at/2021/08/04/militaer-ethik-im-judo/
International Security Competence Centre GmbH (ISCC Austria). (2023, February 24). Interview: Assoc. Prof. Salvatore Giacomuzzi – AustriaPub Radio vom 04 02 2022. Retrieved from https://iscc.at/2023/02/24/interview-austriapub-radio-vom-04-02-2022/
International Security Competence Centre GmbH (ISCC Austria). (n.d.). Ausgangslage. Retrieved from https://iscc.at/ausgangslage/
International Security Competence Centre GmbH (ISCC Austria). (n.d.). Kooperationen. Retrieved from https://iscc.at/kooperationen/
International Security Competence Centre GmbH (ISCC Austria). (n.d.). Leitbild. Retrieved from https://iscc.at/leitbild/
International Security Competence Centre GmbH (ISCC Austria). (n.d.). Cursor consortium overview. Retrieved from https://cursor-project.eu/the-team/consortium/iscc/
Jungwirth, R., et al. (2023). Hybrid threats: A comprehensive resilience ecosystem (CORE model) (Science for Policy report, EUR 31104 EN). EU Joint Research Centre. https://doi.org/10.2760/37899
Kaunert, C., & Léonard, S. (2023). Resilient states versus democratic vulnerabilities: Conceptualizing security and resilience in EU studies. Journal of European Public Policy, 30(6), 823–841. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2023.2241021
King’s College London. (2024). Department of War Studies – Summer Programmes. Retrieved from https://www.kcl.ac.uk/warstudies
Menkiszak, M. (2014). The Putin doctrine: The formation of a concept. OSW Studies. Centre for Eastern Studies. Retrieved from https://www.osw.waw.pl/sites/default/files/the_putin_doctrine_0.pdf
Mumford, A. (2023). Hybrid warfare: The continuation of ambiguity by other means. European Journal of International Security, 8(2), 192–206. https://doi.org/10.1017/eis.2022.19
NATO Defense College. (2024). Senior course and research fellowships. Retrieved from https://www.ndc.nato.int
Nilsson, N. (2025). Hybrid threats and the intelligence community. Journal of Intelligence and National Security, 38(3), 274–291. https://doi.org/10.1080/08850607.2024.2435265
Olech, A. (2025). Hybrid threats to critical infrastructure in the European Union: Selected Hybrid CoE analyses. Terrorism – Studies, Analyses, Prevention, Special Issue, 133–158. https://doi.org/10.4467/27204383TER.25.017.21520
Reis, J. (2024). European Union defense and security strategy for space. Acta Astronautica, 204, 57–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2024.4995
Ruohonen, J. (2024). The incoherency risk in the EU’s new cyber security policies. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2405.12043
Trump, B. D., Mitoulis, S., Argyroudis, S., Kiker, G., Palma-Oliveira, J., Horton, R., Pescaroli, G., Pinigina, E., & Trump, J. (2025). Threat-agnostic resilience: Framing and application for critical infrastructure. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2501.01318
Usewicz, T. (2023). Hybrid actions and their effect on EU maritime security. Journal on Baltic Security, 9(1), 45–63. https://doi.org/10.2478/jobs-2023-0005
Yigit, Y., Ferrag, M. A., Sarker, I. H., Maglaras, L. A., Chrysoulas, C., Moradpoor, N., … Janicke, H. (2024). Critical infrastructure protection: Generative AI, challenges, and opportunities. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2405.04874
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors submitting publications for this edition agree to the following terms:
- The authors retain the copyright to their publications and grant the journal “The Journal of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. Series: International Relations. Economics. Country Studies. Tourism” for the right of first publication.
- Submission and acceptance of a publication to the journal means that the authors grant the journal a non-exclusive license to publish, distribute, and archive the material in print and electronic form and to include it in international abstracting and bibliographic databases.
- Authors may:
- deposit the published version of their work in institutional or disciplinary repositories,
- distribute it on personal or professional web pages,
- use the material for educational or research purposes,
provided that:
- the publication is not altered,
- it is not used for commercial purposes,
- a complete bibliographic reference for the publication in the journal is provided.
Authors' Responsibility
- The authors guarantee that the submitted publication is an original work and does not infringe on the copyrights or intellectual property of third parties.
- The authors confirm that this manuscript has not been published previously and is not under consideration by another publisher.
- If the publication uses materials (figures, tables, data, etc.) belonging to third parties, the authors are responsible for obtaining the necessary permissions and for correctly citing the sources.
Publisher's Responsibility
- This publication ensures a transparent and ethical publication process, as well as open access to all materials in accordance with the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.
- The publication guarantees long-term digital preservation of content by archiving it in internal and external repositories.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication of this work under the terms of a license Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
