5 September 2026

Published by the Institute for Strategic Solutions (ISR)

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Let your children screw up

Andraž Tavčar

I spent much of this week in conversation, arriving fresh-faced on the heels of this year's Bled Strategic Forum, which I attended with our director and student intern. The experience had left me, perhaps for the first time, acutely conscious of my age, which is fast approaching 30. I'm 29, though I've been telling people I'm "practically 30" since I was at least 26.

What brought this on was watching our intern nervously prepare for the task I had given her: conducting an interview at this year's BSF. Having accepted that I am now firmly at the midpoint of my life - an adult, safely sequestered from the follies of youth - I became a little more aware of the strange generational territory I now occupy. I may feel worlds apart from Gen Xers and Boomers, but to a member of Gen Alpha passing me on the street, I would no doubt belong to much the same ancient caste.

This year's Bled Strategic Forum, by now a fixture of Slovenia's international calendar, ran under the headline "The Power to Shape the Future". Three days earlier, in Kranjska Gora, its younger sibling, Young BSF, had convened under a rather different banner: "After the Rupture". Taken together, the two titles neatly captured something I kept encountering in conversations with people both older and younger than myself. A generational divide not so much over what has happened to the world in the past few years, but over what anyone expects can still be done about it.

Those older than I tended to speak in the language of loss. They lamented the erosion of the multilateral order, the weakening of institutions and the increasingly casual disregard for rules and conventions that, for all their imperfections, once seemed to provide some structure to international affairs. Those younger than I were not quite apathetic. Their outlook struck me instead as a hope that, whatever becomes of the wider world, they might still carve out a tolerable corner of it for themselves somewhere in the Alps or, as one younger interlocutor joked, failing that, on Epstein's island, safely sequestered from the flames licking at everything beyond their chosen refuge.

It is not difficult to understand, let alone fault, the former view, particularly among much of this readership, older and considerably wiser than I. Your youth was shaped by a vision of the world that was, if not simpler, then certainly more hopeful and more legible than the one inherited by my generation and those after it. You saw Slovenia declare independence in 1991, join NATO in 2004 and adopt the euro in 2007. You watched a set of rules, alliances and institutions turn a small, newly independent state into one with security, prosperity and standing far beyond what its size might otherwise have afforded it.

We were not raised badly. If anything, we were raised too well. We inherited institutions whose construction we had not witnessed and securities whose absence we had never really had to contemplate. Only now are we discovering that none of them came with a lifetime guarantee.

The instinct, particularly among those who remember what came before, is understandably to protect the generations that follow from whatever comes next. But one thing I was reminded of this week is that protection can become its own kind of handicap. The easiest way to learn how to swim is, at some point, to be put in the water. Our intern was nervous about conducting her interview at Bled. I gave her the assignment anyway, then rather unhelpfully disappeared into the crowd to mingle and network. She did splendidly. More importantly, by the end of it she no longer needed me hovering over her shoulder.

There may be a political lesson in that as well. We spend a great deal of time asking how to restore young people's faith in institutions, how to make them participate and how to persuade them that the future is still theirs to shape. Perhaps part of the answer is to stop treating them as spectators of a world built by somebody else. Give them responsibility before they feel entirely ready for it.

I am aware, of course, of the irony in a childless 29-year-old dispensing parenting advice to a readership containing people who have actually raised children. Consider this less a manual for child-rearing than an observation from someone who has only recently discovered that he is now old enough to be entrusted with interns.

In other words: let your children screw up. Not because failure is virtuous, nor because the stakes have become any smaller, but because the ability to shape the future cannot be taught entirely in theory. A generation spared every mistake will eventually inherit problems it has never been allowed to practise solving.

Tete-a-Tete

Confident by being Slovenian

Peter Grk has been Secretary General of the Bled Strategic Forum since 2016. A career diplomat with over 20 years in the service, he has held posts in Ankara, Copenhagen, Brussels and New York, and currently serves as National Coordinator for the Western Balkans at Slovenia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When he's not organising summits, he's driving his two sons to football and volleyball games across Slovenia — or playing Friday basketball at Dvorana Tabor, a ritual he's kept up for 30 years.

How does your ideal weekend usually look? As a father of two boys, my weekends are usually spent driving around Slovenian regions and towns watching as they play football games and volleyball. It's a nice way to discover towns and cities, which I wouldn't usually think about visiting. If by some miracle there are no games, we usually drive down to our region (Karst) where we relax, read and sometimes we drive down to Trieste with my wife for an "aperitivo" and a nice walk along the sea. For the last 30 years my Fridays are always reserved for basketball, which was an important part of my life and with friends we are still playing pick up games at Dvorana Tabor in Ljubljana. What is always on the table at the weekend, food, a drink, or a particular record? Since my family is from down South close to Istria and Italy, food and conversations are an important part of our lives, we like to host dinners with friends, where we cook, usually something Mediterranean and talk about the kids and the meaning of life. In our fridge and on the table you will always find parmesan cheese, olive oil and a glass of red wine. You have spent years working in different diplomatic environments, from Ankara and Copenhagen to Brussels and New York. What has living and working abroad taught you about Slovenia? That's actually a good question. Simple answer would be, and I know it's a cliche, but there is no place as home. Let me refine this a little bit more. Everything that people say about Slovenia is true — the nature, the security, the proximity to everything — but what I learned by living in other countries and regions is confidence in who you are where you are coming from. I'm confident by being Slovenian and living in Slovenia, because I know that somewhere else the grass in not necessarily greener. I think we should all be proud as Slovenians of what we achieved and work together in preserving it. This year's BSF is built around the idea of "The Power to Shape the Future". In a world that often feels increasingly unpredictable, who actually has the power to shape the future? States, individuals, young generations, businesses, international organisations, or perhaps those who are willing to act despite uncertainty?

Also on the site:

Slovenia has plenty of plans. It could do with some decisions

The price of comfort

Young BSF

Who are the young people shaping the future of the Euro-Atlantic world?

Manca Frank

A generation no longer willing to wait for its opportunity. A generation growing up in a time when security can no longer be taken for granted. And a generation that will have to live with the consequences of today's decisions.

Speaking on the sidelines of Young BSF, the youth programme that preceded the main Bled Strategic Forum, Matic Kosirnik, President of YATA Slovenia, shared his perspective on the role of young people in shaping the future of the Euro-Atlantic world.

Young BSF brought together the next generation of security thinkers ahead of the main Bled Strategic Forum. Bled Strategic Forum

Kosirnik points out a clear generational difference in how security is understood. After the end of the Cold War, the understanding of security broadened and deepened — not only military, but also economic, political, environmental and societal. Nevertheless, traditional state and military security is once again at the forefront. As threats change, so too do the measures used to ensure security and safety.

The security expert of the future will not be able to rely solely on knowledge of the military sphere. They will need a strategic understanding informed by history, political science, law, international relations, technology, economics, culture and other fields. The key word is multidisciplinarity.

We do not need to wait until we become policymakers to become part of the discussion. Read more here.

In Brief

Early parliamentary elections in Serbia will be held on 25 October, according to state-aligned media, with parliament expected to be dissolved within days. The vote follows months of student-led protests triggered by the Novi Sad railway-station disaster, which killed 16 people and grew into the biggest challenge to Aleksandar Vučić's rule in years. Mr Vučić, whose second presidential term ends next year, cannot seek a third. Recent polling suggests his Serbian Progressive Party could lose its parliamentary majority.

A fresh political deadlock in Kosovo is raising the prospect of yet another parliamentary election. On Tuesday six MPs from the Democratic League of Kosovo refused to back Bekim Sejdiu, the compromise presidential candidate agreed with Albin Kurti's Vetëvendosje, depriving him of the supermajority needed in parliament. The EU has repeatedly urged Kosovo's parties to break the cycle of elections and compromise, warning that prolonged institutional paralysis is delaying reforms and access to hundreds of millions of euros in European funding. The latest revolt suggests that the obstacle is no longer simply rivalry between parties, but fragmentation within them.

A visit to Slovenia by Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa'ar on September 9th and 10th will coincide with the opening of the Israeli embassy in Ljubljana. Local media report that the mission will be based on Dimičeva ulica, in the immediate vicinity of offices belonging to Slovenia's Ministry of Defence. Its location had been kept quiet amid security concerns and fears of protests, fuelling speculation that it might instead open in central Ljubljana, the BTC City shopping and business district, or the World Trade Center. The embassy is but one more sign of a broader reset under Janez Janša's government, which has favoured closer engagement with Israel and last week declined to back an EU statement condemning Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank.

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