Organization for Nonviolent Movements

Roundtable discussion held on March 24, 2026 Paris Defense and Security Forum 2026

Below are the opening remarks of panel lead and moderator, Amber French-Griette, Co-founder and Executive Director, Organization for Nonviolent Movements (Paris), followed by a brief timestamped summary of the roundtable discussion, quotes, and a case study of Lithuania’s civilian-based defense system.

Panelists: Olena Tregub (NAKO, Ukraine), Svitlana Kobzar (NATO HQ), Col. (Ret.) Andrii Ordynovych (Ukraine), Tomas Godliauskas (Vice Minister of Defense, Lithuania), Felip Daza Sierra (Sciences Po)

00:00:00 to 00:07:26: Amber French-Griette, Opening Remarks

“The people don’t like to be conquered, sir, and so they will not be. Free men cannot start a war, but once it is started, they can fight on in defeat. Herd men, followers of a leader, cannot do that, and so it is always the herd men who win battles and the free men who win wars. You will find that is so, sir.”

The mayor of a fictional occupied town in John Steinbeck’s 1942 novel, The Moon Is Down, comments on his population’s responses to an unprovoked invasion and the violation of their rights and dignity. Their reactions were exactly what one would expect from people accustomed to freedom. They were initially caught off guard by the sudden attack and overwhelmed by the highly organized military force of an authoritarian regime. Then, with few other options, they began drawing upon democracy’s greatest asset: the power of free citizens united under leaders who merely embody shared values. Steinbeck’s recognition of this power is echoed by one of history’s most clear-eyed political thinkers, Machiavelli, who held that democracies are among the most difficult to subjugate.

This is the Democracy Arsenal and it’s a strategy particularly adapted to countering hybrid war.

I am Amber French-Griette, co-founder and director of the Organization for Nonviolent Movements, ONM, a think and do tank here in Paris working at the intersection between civil society and national defense. I am Franco-American living in France for over 14 years, and editor of ONM’s brand new journal issue, “Ukrainian Freedom: Collective Agency in National Defense.” I study wartime civic resistance, which is relevant today because it is asymmetrical conflict, and this is the frame that I bring as panel lead and moderator. 

The goal of today’s roundtable is to explore nonmilitary power, a term which may baffle you at first. But if you persevere, you will perhaps learn something new about war and also gain strategic insights for Europe. At a time when pressure is mounting, there is increasing competition for militaries’ classic arsenals, and so unexamined sources of power in society, like the democracy arsenal, become more important. 

Participants of our roundtable today include: Olena Tregub, Secretary-General of NAKO, the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission in Ukraine; Tomas Godliauskas, the Vice-Minister of Defense of Lithuania; Felip Daza Sierra, Professor at Sciences Po and researcher on nonviolent resistance in frontline territories of Ukraine since 2022; Andrii Ordynovych, retired Ukrainian Colonel and former military attaché at the Ukrainian Embassy in the US; and last but not least, Svitlana Kobzar, Ukraine Officer with the Political Affairs and Security Policy Division at NATO HQ. 

There is one central concept to define before we dive into the discussion, and it is unarmed civilian-based defense. Like many concepts with no internationally recognized definition, it carries many names and conceptual variations, so it is perhaps best defined by what it is not. It is not pacifism or an anti-war ideology. It is not civil defense, which is emergency preparedness and primarily concerned with civilian actions that are auxiliary to institution-derived power. It is not the concept of total defense either, which considers both unarmed and armed civil resistance, including the concept of citizen-soldiers. Finally, it is not a call for martyrdom, because it is not aspirational, as you will discover during the next 90 minutes. Unarmed civilian-based defense is none of these.

It is… a very real path taken by our great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers in Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, and other countries during Nazi occupation, and later on, by our parents, aunts, and uncles in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and the Baltic countries to resist Soviet aggression. It is a vast area of human endeavor, whose limits are only those of our imagination and collective intelligence. It is often spontaneous at first, becoming more and more coordinated over time. Its protagonists, families, neighbors, civil society, businesses, retirees, youth, students, and civil servants, primarily aim to disrupt aggressors’ goals and their enablers’ help, thus complementing institutional defense. Their actions also protect attacked communities and contribute to societal resilience against hybrid attacks, bringing cost-effectiveness and benefitting from fewer logistical constraints than most kinetic activities.

Unarmed civilian-based defense, however, is not a panacea; it is perhaps not even ideal, but we have still not found a better alternative for mobilizing more than just a few percentage points of a population toward national defense. This form of strategic competition engages a different theory of victory, one where, using what we already have, we modify the terms on which conflict happens, reducing asymmetry in our favor. A theory of victory where we engage an aggressor on a battlefield where he does not possess the strategic advantage.

Let’s now turn to our discussion. The questions we will cover are:

1. What does nonmilitary power look like on the ground in Ukraine? What actors, what are their interests, what do they do, and with what impacts? 
2. How does unarmed civilian-based defense complement institutional defense efforts? 
3. How can institutions support unarmed civilian-based defense preparedness? 
4. With regard to societal preparedness, what comes first, resilience or resistance? How do a country’s past nonviolent revolutions contribute to its resilience today?

00:07:27 to 00:21:52: What does nonmilitary power look like in Ukraine?

00:07:27 to 00:13:46: Olena Tregub focuses on efforts of Ukrainian civil society to address corruption and government underpreparedness for defending Russian advances starting in 2014. 

00:13:47 to 00:21:23: Felip Daza Sierra focuses on nonviolent resistance tactics he documented in his extensive research in frontline territories of Ukraine since the 2022 full-scale invasion.

00:21:54 to 00:33:51: How does unarmed civilian-based defense complement institutional defense efforts?

00:22:06 to 00:25:45: Svitlana Kobzar of NATO Headquarters focuses on the objectives of comprehensive defense, highlighting civilian-led crisis response, private sector agency, and civilian action to reduce societal vulnerabilities.

00:25:46 to 00:32:55: Col. (Ret.) Andrii Ordynoyvch of the Ukrainian Armed Forces focuses on civilian “soft power”, logistical networks, clean defense procurement, and as a “force multiplier” making the Ukrainian army more effective on the ground.

00:33:52 to 01:01:33: How can institutions support unarmed civilian-based defense preparedness, and why?

00:34:27 to 00:45:34: Tomas Godliauskas, Vice Minister of Defense, Lithuania, shares many details about Lithuania’s holistic approach to national defense, in which unarmed civilian-based defense preparedness is central.

00:45:59 to 00:49:58: Felip Daza Sierra talks about how institutions can activate youth through culture, democratic values, and identity; decentralization processes and local decision-making; mass training; and creation of CIMIC innovation hubs.

00:50:03 to 00:56:35: Olena Tregub emphasizes the importance of educating youth on the nature of authoritarian regimes vs. democratic regimes; proactive defense anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine which are always lauded by the military; and the role of civil society in innovating warfare through drone innovation.

00:56:54 to 01:01:33: Svitlana Kobzar argues that institutions can make space for civil society; can trust civil society more, as they are closer to the people, and this is necessary in crisis (trust is a two-way street); and can involve civil society in decision-making, thinking and planning, not in a controlling way but in a way that acknowledges it as an actor.

01:01:34 to the end: What comes first, resistance or resilience?

01:02:10 to 01:06:22: Col. (Ret.) Andrii Ordynovych distinguishes between civilian and military resilience, arguing that without intrinsic or learned resilience skills, a population will not resist.

01:06:44 to 01:09:47: Tomas Godliauskas points out Lithuania’s long history of resisting Russian domination, without partners or resources, arguing that resistance is thus in their genes. But “societal hygiene” measures to accompany populations toward more resilience, like civilian resistance preparation and education on disinformation, are essential steps.

01:09:53 to the end: Olena Tregub adds that part of resilience is opening up the defense industry to civilian oversight and making space to build relationships between civilians and defense-sector actors.

Notable quotes

Tomas Godliauskas, Vice Minister of Defense, Lithuania

• “NGOs jumping in on defense is a breakthrough.”
• “The goal is to protect both our land and our serenity.”
• “The elephant in the room is [how to engage] society in supporting defense.”
• “For Lithuania, if we didn’t have unarmed defense, we would not be able to incorporate our diasporas into the defense effort.”
• “Unarmed defense is about the will of the whole society to defend the country. It’s about the spirit, the identity, our values. These elements must be on the table when we talk about preparing our people.”
• “What we saw in Ukraine in 2022 was the will of the people to defend their country, not just the army but the will of the Ukrainian people to push Russia back for the first 5 or 6 days. This was crucial for Ukraine’s survivability. [No civilian should be left behind from defense power.]”

Felip Daza Sierra, Sciences Po

• “Resilience is a resistance process. It is made up of societal cohesion and competencies, economic infrastructure, and information sharing processes.
• “Self-organizing practices and relationship building and activation are central to resilience.”

Svitlana Kobzar, NATO Headquarters

• “Governments can’t control civil society, but that’s the power of it.”
• “Grassroots civil society is what proves the impossible possible.”

Olena Tregub, NAKO (Ukraine)

• “When Russia took Crimea and started war in Donbas, Ukrainian active citizens came to the Ministry of Defense and they said, “We don’t think you are prepared enough to defend our country. […] The president we had before turned out to be a de facto Russian agent who currently is residing in Russia. His policy was to basically ruin our defense sector and prepare us to be grabbed by Russia. But luckily citizens spotted this and they stepped in.”

Col. (Ret.) Andrii Ordynovych, Ukrainian Armed Forces

• “Civilian-based defense is completely complementary currently to the Ukrainian military.”
• “Civil society is very agile in stopping the enemy to some extent.”
• “Civil society is a force multiplier [in defense].”

CASE STUDY: Lithuania’s civilian-based defense system

Of Lithuania’s population of 2.9 million, 150,000 have finished military training and are either active or prepared reservists. Meanwhile, 850,000 men between ages 18 and 60 do not have any military preparation. Historically, 5 to 7 percent of our population was mobilized militarily for Lithuania to be considered defendable. Yet in a 2025 poll, 51% of Lithuanian respondents stated they would be willing to engage in armed defense, and 58% reported they would be willing to engage in unarmed defense. A pluralistic definition of mobilization makes the pie bigger.

The factor of nonmilitary power is thus crucial to military planning. It’s not just that we in society should understand that we play a very significant role; it’s that in military planning this perception must also be procured. Besides, there will be no military action without societal, institutional, and state support. It is very short-sighted to not have this societal-level effort recognized, studied, resourced, and mainstreamed at the highest level.

What does that look like? Beyond supporting training in partnership with civil society, Lithuania has a national strategy in unarmed civilian-based defense with an agenda of very clear goals to achieve for our population, starting from the school and the education we want to give to our kids to grow their resilience as citizens.

Unarmed defense preparedness isn’t just about learning the doctrine of Gene Sharp (who founded the academic discipline of strategic nonviolent conflict). It’s about teaching people how to continue their jobs and daily lives during crisis, because we want people to maintain critical positions and vital functions– hospitals, electricity, infrastructure, education. People have to continue to work, continue to be themselves, and not just join the army.

Tomas Godliauskas’ comments during the roundtable inspired this text.