Vienna – ESI keynote on European security and hybrid threats

10 March 2026
Vienna. Photo: flickr/barnyz
Vienna. Photo: flickr/barnyz

ESI’s Gerald Knaus delivered a keynote speech titled “Peace under threat – Geopolitical crises and Europe’s enemies” at Rhode & Schwarz’s Innovationstag Intelligence & Security Solutions in Vienna.

Gerald’s speech focused on the implications of recent geopolitical crises for Austria and its role within Europe’s evolving security architecture. He argued that the Euro-Atlantic security order was under greater pressure than at any time since the end of the Cold War, with direct consequences for Austria. Russia’s war against Ukraine has reshaped Europe’s security environment, showing how instability in the east affected the entire continent. Austria’s security, he stressed, was closely tied to the strength of the European Union, whose integration had transformed Europe into a space of cooperation and shared norms. Preserving this achievement, he argued, required deeper European integration, particularly in the field of security and coordinated policy responses.

Gerald emphasised that the main threats were increasingly hybrid, combining military pressure with disinformation and migration-related destabilisation driven by Vladimir Putin’s Russia. These developments have fuelled support for nationalist forces such as the Freedom Party of Austria. In response, Gerald argued that stronger European integration could provide an effective answer.  He noted two ESI plans to this effect – to coordinate migration policy with the UK under ESI’s Channel Plan and to enlarge the EU with ESI’s plan to offer EU single market membership to any candidate nation as a credible and reachable interim goal to Ukraine, Moldova, and any of the six Western Balkan nations interested in it.