War on our own continent. Who would have thought or predicted that. Well, in January a few HCSS analysts sat down because the Russian military build-up on the borders with Ukraine had surpassed 100,000 troops; because worrying signals were heard from NATO-Brussels since October of the year before; because Russia’s 8 demands delivered to NATO capitals by their ambassadors were impossible; and because, retrospectively, the essay Putin wrote at the beginning of summer 2021 left nothing to be desired in terms of clarity: Ukraine has no right to exist outside the Russian community – the Russki Mir.
And so on the morning of February 24, 2022, the date that will go down in history as the start of the Russian invasion war in Ukraine, HCSS was present on television, radio, social media and at a rapidly increasing number of online gatherings all over the world, to provide analysis and clarification.
The Balkan wars in the early 1990s had already led to a renewed sense of security on our old and war-ravaged continent. But that conflict could still be qualified as a civil war after the breakup of a country. It would have major consequences for our naive belief that our liberal order was untouchable, that horror and inhuman barbarism had disappeared forever into the history books. Except now, well into the 21st century, here is a full-scale war and invasion by Russia to subdue an independent and sovereign country and push the post-Berlin Wall security order to the history books forever.
But then something happened. Slowly and restrained, but steadily firmer and with unparalleled unity, our old continent lifted itself up, NATO awoke from its apparent brain death and we fully stood behind a courageous people with a charismatic leader. No one could have foreseen a year ago that Ukraine would so clearly determine world history and the future of our own freedom, prosperity and security. Neither did HCSS, which has emerged not only as an explicator, chronicler, but also as a government advisor in less than 9 months since the start of this conflict.
The result was so much more visibility for our thinktank, which brought to the forefront its expertise precisely on these issues of hard security and peace, resulting in a flourishing 2022. Security awareness grew from citizen to boardroom. An unending stream of requests for clarification came our way and analysts and experts became welcome talking heads.
The year 2022 was also a commercially good one for HCSS, as a growing acquisition led to more projects and more employees. As Americans would say, “we are through the looking glass”. And with a structural increase in the Defence budget, for which HCSS has been advocating since its inception, the imminent establishment of a Security Council to keep the government geopolitically informed and the enormous attention from the business community to what we at HCSS call geopolitical “due diligence” – the extent to which companies and boardrooms consistently factor geopolitics into their strategic decisions – the circumstances for a thinktank like ours have also fundamentally changed.
We can therefore look to the future with confidence, despite the dark times for our continent. Because our expertise is not only more in demand than ever before, but also more necessary than ever.
Han ten Broeke
Experts
Related Content
