Beatrice de Graaf is fascinated by the tensions between terror and statehood and she asks what it really takes to maintain vibrant democracies in a neo-imperial world. Her turning point lies in the early 19th century. When Napoleon was finally defeated at Waterloo in 1815, the allies drew up a new political order in Europe. Its architecture not only shaped the patterns of alliances of Western powers and Russia engaged in a series of more or less difficult dances while leaving the Russian partners feeling betrayed, it also redefined the idea of terror and terrorism and answered the loss of metaphysical authority with a secular authority based not on democratic legitimacy, but on systematic surveillance and information gathering. Welcome to the modern nation state. In the early 21st century, the question remains how and indeed weather security and democratic freedoms can be reconciled, especially in an age of AI and digital self surveillance on an unprecedented scale. Could a fight against inequality be the only possibility for democracy to survive? And can we learn from history, after all?

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