At a recent protest, when asked about the kind of peace he was clamouring for, a participant hesitated briefly before responding emphatically: ‘a peace to end all wars, a peace that would allow us to focus solely on our country, neither in the East nor the West.’[1]
He was referring to Romania, echoing a narrative that grew increasingly potent during the country’s fraught elections after seeding on the fringes of public discourse. Peace may indeed be a universal aspiration. However, when that aspiration is deliberately manipulated to weaken solidarity with those fighting for their sovereignty and existence, peace becomes a weapon wielded in the darkness – isolating the victim while protecting the aggressor.
The strategy lies in distortion by severing the meaning of peace from its context – detaching it from justice and reality so that, when unmoored from the truth, peace becomes a tool of subjugation. Carefully curated to sow fear and distrust, slogans that once lurked in the shadows of conspiracy forums found their way into collective mindsets, nurtured and methodically amplified by hostile external forces.
When Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago, Romanians mobilised across the country to offer unwavering support to the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees crossing the borders – the devastating reality of war and displacement, undeniable in its raw immediacy. Solidarity emerged organically and from the grassroots, with families opening their homes and volunteers mustering supplies, each contributing with resolve to a nationwide relief effort. As the war continued to rage just across the border, it was precisely this solidarity that became a target, not just in Romania but throughout Europe and the system of alliances binding democratic communities in what had seemed, not so long ago, a robust pact. Purposefully, the seeds of doubt were planted in familiar soil to incite historical anxieties, institutional mistrust, and the economic insecurities that war inevitably inflamed.
While fragments of Russian drones kept falling from the sky – a reminder that borders do not confine wars – and news showed Ukrainian cities turned to rubble, another campaign, cloaked in the language of patriotism, was being waged surreptitiously from the depths of social media. Flowing unabated through the digital landscape, shifting between geographies, these targeted influence operations adapted seamlessly, infiltrating local contexts from Bucharest to Bratislava and Berlin while serving a discernible objective: to fracture democratic societies from within and undermine the very foundations of Western coalitions that stood resilient against Russian aggression. Both online and offline, a perilous symbiosis emerged between extremist factions, the Kremlin’s siloviki,[2] and tyrannical/authoritarian regimes opportunistically aligned with this vast destabilisation agenda.
Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, talks of a potential peace were held behind closed doors, ostensibly to expedite an agreement,[3] but deliberately excluding its most essential stakeholders, Ukraine and Europe. In the relentless hybrid warfare of today, narratives have become battlegrounds manipulated with algorithmic precision. While the promise of peace remains alluring for many, there is still hope that its meaning can be reclaimed. At this crucial juncture, a collective effort to defend peace as more than the absence of war is imperative.
Peace cannot be brokered in exclusion, nor can it emerge from capitulation to violent revisionism. It is forged through solidarity, protected by justice, and sustained by the unwavering belief that freedom is indivisible.
Andra-Lucia Martinescu is a Foreign Policy Centre Research Fellow.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this piece are those of the individual authors and do not reflect the views of The Foreign Policy Centre.
[1] Conversation with a supporter of the far-right during a protest in Bucharest (10.01.2025).
[2] The term is associated with Russian security and military personnel.
[3] ‘Paul Kirby, ’Who was at the table at US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia’, BBC, 18 February 2025, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c743jl8k4kko.