Topic Moderator – Defense Community

Location: Remote within Europe

Time commitment: Flexible (average 2–4 hours/week)

Type: Voluntary position

Deadline to apply: 31 August

About DefCom

DefCom is Volt Europa’s thematic community on European defence and security. It brings together young people, experts, and elected officials to collaboratively shape forward-looking policy. The community operates through three structured subteams and six moderators working across three topic clusters:

• Command and Control
• Cooperation and Integration
• Whole-of-Society Approaches

DefCom’s goal is to make politics both engaging and impactful, ensuring ideas from the community feed into Volt’s pan-European agenda.

Role Overview

As a Topic Moderator, you will lead and structure discussions within one of DefCom’s thematic subgroups. Your role is not to dictate outcomes, but to facilitate productive dialogue that leads to well-supported, concrete policy proposals.

Be aware that we are specifically looking for a topic moderator for the command and control topic. You can send Rob van Olmen an e-mail to get to know more about the topic.

You’ll support community members in moving from ideation to consensus and ultimately to adoption through Volt’s democratic processes helping bridge the gap between grassroots ideas and political impact.

Key Responsibilities

• Facilitate structured, inclusive debates on defence-related topics.
• Remain neutral in content, while actively supporting member-led initiatives.
• Design meeting agendas and guide discussions toward clear next steps.
• Ensure diverse viewpoints are included and respected.
• Coordinate with other topic moderators in case of overlap.
• Maintain communication with the Steering Committee and other sub teams.
• Select the appropriate tools and formats for dialogue (e.g., sessions, collaborative documents).
• Organise engaging online (and potentially offline) topic sessions.

You’ll Be Great At This If You…

• Are a strong facilitator and listener
• Enjoy structuring dialogue and synthesizing diverse viewpoints
• Can guide groups without pushing a personal agenda
• Are interested in complex policy issues
• Can commit time consistently (even just a few hours per week)
• Want to shape European defense policy from the ground up

What You’ll Gain

• A central role in shaping Volt’s defence and security platform
• Experience in facilitation, policy-building, and community leadership
• Collaboration with experts, elected officials, and engaged Europeans
• Concrete impact in one of Europe’s most urgent policy areas