A People's Army: Civil Society as a Security Actor in Post-Maidan Ukraine

The large-scale mobilisation of Ukrainian society is the most far-reaching legacy of Euromaidan and its tragic aftermath. Civil society intervened to fill the gap created by the state’s failure to fulfil key functions like the provision of security and defence. In so doing, civil society has turned de facto into a security actor. By proposing a narrative of collective responsibility and introducing modern and more transparent working methods in civilian and military institutions, post-Maidan civil society has displayed the potential to act as a “change agent” determined to induce substantial reforms in Ukraine. The condition for this to happen is that state institutions establish and retain arenas for functional representation and guarantee civil society’s regular and meaningful access to decision-making beyond the emergency of the current crisis.