Until major incident occurs, Belgians unlikely to demand defense boost, defense expert sys
Belgian defense expert Roger Housen said this in an interview with Ukrinform.
"Knowing my fellow citizens and knowing how politics is operating in my country, I'm afraid that we first have to be confronted or we first have to face a very serious incident with casualties before the awareness is big enough to act. That's how it works in Belgium," Housen said.
In his view, a similar situation exists across much of Western Europe.
“Of course, we do have some exceptions, like defense minister Theo Francken, who is very much aware about the aim of the hybrid attacks, of what's going on in that shadow zone between war and peace, but unfortunately his fellow politicians are still hesitating, being oblivious of what is happening behind the scenes and under the waterline,” the expert noted.
He believes that calls to strengthen defense capabilities and improve societal preparedness will continue to encounter resistance.
"The war in Ukraine and everything that’s happening in the Baltic States and Romania or Poland – that’s for an average Belgian still far away. That's not something to be worried about. And once again, the awareness about what is needed and what needs to be done right now is still very limited. We Belgians, still have the mentality of ‘wait and see’ and ‘everything will work out in a good way and we'll survive’," Housen said.
The expert added that he recently published a book Twilight War to raise awareness among Belgian society – and potentially neighboring countries – that Russia is "attacking our infrastructure by using digital weapon systems."
"In our European mindset, a country's either in war or in peace, and there's nothing in between. But for Moscow there is a broad continuum between peace and war, and in that shadow, gray zone between war and peace the Russians are executing or applying a lot of instruments to weaken us, to increase polarization to increase kind of Here within our societies to degrade our potential to defend ourselves," he explained.
He stressed the need to increase awareness among both citizens and policymakers about resisting hybrid attacks, strengthening societal resilience, and developing strategies to respond effectively so that such attacks can be deterred in the future.
Housen also discussed work on a new defense codex that would provide Belgium with tools to improve military mobility in the event of armed conflicts, particularly in Eastern Europe.
"It's very important but it won't change very much the mindset of our politicians and the mindset of Belgian population," he said.
As previously reported by Ukrinform, NATO is developing partnerships with private companies to improve monitoring of hybrid threats.
Photo provided by Roger Housen
