Employing ab-initio calculations and statistical thermodynamic modeling, we investigated the structural stability, defect energies, and ordering of B2 FeCo intermetallics. We find that FeCo in the B2 structure is a marginally stable and weakly ordered system, with a high density of antisite defects on both sublattices and low APB energies for the <111> slip on both {110} and {112} planes. The structural stability of B2 FeCo is very sensitive to the change in local atomic environment, as the system transforms to a lower-symmetry L10 phase under the effects of reduced dimensionality or applied shear stress. We suggest that internal stresses near dislocation cores might be closely connected with the intrinsic brittleness of ordered FeCo, as it is likely to induce a local structural transformation from the B2 structure to the L10 structure.