Integration of war refugees from Ukraine? bottom-up and top-down views of Central European second-tier cities

Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine has triggered socio-cultural changes in Central Europe. War refugees, as a factor of social change, overlapped with cultural shift following the integration processes of UE. From this perspective, the integration of war refugees has also become a measure of the evolution of cities towards greater openness and resilience. The title question of integration triggered at least two analytical contexts: the first related to similarities of integration policies employed in the selected cities. The second relates to the perceptions of the war refugees themselves. The perspective of the acting subject can be useful here in answering questions: what is the specificity of war refugeeism, and how does its specificity affect the integration process on the local level? The answer to the questions formulated in the text was not definitive, but the results indicatedvalidity of a regional perspective in interpreting the dynamics of the integration process. The project collected data from second-tier cities: Brno, Kosice, Krakow, Miskolc, Poznan and Uzhhorod. The study employed conceptualizations of integration and social anchoring and the mixed-methods research strategy, using an online survey, in-depth interviews and focus group interviews.

The visual politics of empathy: how Estonians learn from Ukraine

This contribution to the Forum builds on the academic approaches analysing how societies learn from current international insecurities, and through this lens discusses how the Russian-Ukrainian war resonates and produces new social practices in other affected countries. Our analysis is mostly built on different genres of visuals that are illustrative of how Ukraine’s experiences of resisting Russia’s aggression are adopted and culturally integrated into what might be called “everyday foreign policy” in Estonia. Our research demonstrates how affective and emotive visualization interiorizes Ukraine’s experience of resistance and resilience, and exteriorizes the whole set of Russia-related meanings.

Can Germany learn from Ukraine? Resilience in a time of polycrisis

This contribution to the Forum explores whether Germany has engaged in political learning from Ukraine’s societal resilience amid Russia’s war of aggression since 2022. To answer this question, the article draws on literature about policy diffusion and, in particular, the learning mechanism. It analyzes an original corpus of over 1000 statements from German decision-makers and policy documents from 2016 to 2025. The analysis reveals that although the concept of “resilience” has been referenced more frequently in German political discourse, there is little quantitative or qualitative evidence of direct learning from Ukraine’s experience. Ukraine is primarily discussed in the passive voice as a victim of Russian aggression and recipient of German aid, rather than as an entity from which lessons can be learned. The article concludes that differences in political context, persistence of pre-existing foreign policy ideas, and collective action problems in German policymaking may explain why learning from Ukraine’s resilience has been limited.

Deterrence, coercion, desecuritization: three lessons from the Russo-Ukrainian war

Why do Western responses to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine seem contradictory – simultaneously deterring Moscow while pursuing negotiations, arming Ukraine while restricting weapons use, isolating Russia diplomatically while offering dialogue? This article identifies three competing security logics driving policy: de-securitization (seeking diplomatic settlement), deterrence (preventing escalation to NATO territory), and coercion (forcing Russian withdrawal). Despite the Copenhagen School’s claim that de-securitization is normatively superior, I demonstrate that premature peace initiatives without addressing the security threat embolden aggressors rather than reduce conflict. Deterrence and coercion both securitize Russia as a threat, but differ fundamentally: deterrence is passive and status-quo preserving; coercion is reactive and seeks to reverse aggression through conditional punishment. Western policy since 2022 has attempted all three simultaneously: a “strategic ambiguity” that undermines credibility. Deterrence without extended guarantees for Ukraine creates a credibility gap Russia exploits. Coercion with excessive assurances incentivizes Russia to treat negotiations as capitulation rather than compromise. The result: Russia pays minimal costs for aggression while Ukraine remains vulnerable. The article shows that hybrid approaches combining incompatible logics produce policy failure, with consequences extending way beyond Ukraine.

Are Slovaks a nation of cowards? Robert Fico’s politics of memory and the transformation of Slovak foreign policy towards Russia and Ukraine

This article examines how Robert Fico’s politics of memory have shaped Slovak policy towards Russia and Ukraine after the 2022 invasion, and what this implies for liberal nationalism in Slovakia. It argues that Fico’s success rests on a selective interpretation of national history, through which he portrays Russia as a historical ally, downplays Slovak complicity in Nazi and communist rule, and frames the war in Ukraine primarily in socio-economic rather than normative terms. In contrast, Slovak liberals have often treated nationhood and national history with suspicion, contrasting narratives about a “cowardly” nation with an uncritical alignment of Slovak interests with those of the European Union, leaving the politics of memory to the populists. Drawing on debates about the meaning of the Slovak National Uprising and dissident reflections on cowardice and responsibility, the article shows how the politics of memory structures domestic contestation over relations with Brussels, Kyiv, and Moscow. The article engages with liberal theories of nationalism to suggest that the pro-European camp in Slovakia requires a more positive national narrative that connects liberal-democratic commitments with Slovak historical experience. It concludes by proposing a liberal-nationalist reframing that could help Slovak opposition leaders reclaim debates on history and national interest.

Border anxiety and resilience: Finland’s strategic shift in a new geopolitical era

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has profoundly altered Finland’s security environment and prompted a historic shift in its strategic orientation. Long defined by military non-alignment and pragmatic relations with Russia, Finland applied for NATO membership in May 2022 and formally joined the Alliance in April 2023. This rapid realignment reflects not only the urgency of the new geopolitical era but also policy learning from Ukraine’s resilience in the face of aggression. The Finnish case demonstrates how borderland states interpret and adapt lessons from Ukraine, particularly the importance of readiness, societal cohesion, and international cooperation. At the same time, Finland’s transformation is accompanied by heightened border anxiety, securitization of Russia/ns, and the disruption of its traditional identity as a neutral state. Employing an ontological security perspective, this article argues that Finland’s strategic shift can be understood both as a pragmatic response to external threat and as an attempt to restore a coherent geopolitical narrative disrupted by war. The analysis contributes to debates on resilience, policy learning, and the evolving security order in Europe, highlighting the broader significance of Finland’s reorientation for NATO, the EU, and Europe’s eastern borderlands.

Sexual and gender minority youth in Israel navigating war and marginalization: Perspectives of mental health professionals

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth face unique vulnerabilities in times of war, as minority stress intersects with national crises, exacerbating psychological distress and social marginalization. This qualitative study explores how the October 7th war in Israel affected SGM youth, drawing on interviews with 20 mental health professionals working with this population. Using thematic analysis, four central themes emerged: (1) The War as an Intensifier of Minority Stress, where existing mental health disparities were exacerbated due to heightened national anxiety, displacement, and militarization; (2) Identity Conflicts and Social Alienation, SGM youth struggled with national belonging and global queer solidarity, leading to experience forced re-closeting or identity suppression; (3) Emotional Disconnection and the Delayed Impact of War, where avoidance and emotional detachment were observed as coping mechanisms, raising concerns about long-term psychological consequences; and (4) The Struggle for Visibility, Rights, and Recognition, as professionals emphasized the deprioritization of SGM issues in national discourse and barriers to accessing affirming mental-health services. The findings underscore the compounded vulnerabilities of SGM youth in armed conflict zones, highlighting the need for targeted, culturally-competent interventions and future research into long-term mental health outcomes and the experiences of other ethnocultural groups of SGM youth.

High School English and the Making of American Readers

The high school English classroom is the most influential literary institution in the United States, and the most overlooked by literary scholars. This essay examines the literary canon of US secondary schools alongside the co-curricular institutions—from Advanced Placement to CliffsNotes and the Common Core—that have shaped classroom practice since 1945. Cold War investments in cultivating the nation’s youth contributed to the foundation of the Advanced Placement program, as well as to the practice of reading for “character development,” an interpretive strategy that transforms every text into a bildungsroman. In the same period, New Critical notions of reading for “theme” became central to high school English, but also worked to dehistoricize and deracinate texts, especially those by writers of color. Since 2010, the Common Core State Standards have de-emphasized the reading of literature altogether, a major yet often undiscussed factor in the decline of university English. Reading novels by J. D. Salinger, Colson Whitehead, and Jennifer Egan through the lens of the classroom, this essay argues that understanding high school English is essential for those who study American literary history as well as those who seek to ensure its future.

Frances E. W. Harper’s “Death of Zombi”: A Palmares for North Americans

Frances E. W. Harper was likely the first US Black writer to take up the story of Zumbi, seventeenth-century Afro-Brazilian leader of a fortified settlement, Palmares, that fought off European colonial power for almost a century. Harper’s treatment of Zumbi’s story not only rewrites European histories of Brazil for African American readers but, in the wake of the Civil War and Reconstruction, also reinterprets Palmares as a potential model for Black self-governance in North America. Her 1871 poem, “Death of Zombi,” focusing on the women left to carry on after the loss of Palmares, shows her creating a feminist poetics of resistance that may have informed her later work, even her masterpiece, Iola Leroy.

Retraction and replacement of: Erín Moure’s “Homenaxes á auga/Homages to Water”: The (Poetic) Material that Resists the War