2018

This article addresses a series of difficulties raised by the concept of hybrid warfare. The central tenet is to demonstrate that hybrid warfare as an expression has less academic than political validity. In other words, it is more often used as a normative denunciation for Russian actions than as a term grasping the relevant experience of contemporary warfare. The article sets out to demonstrate that hybrid warfare as set out by Russia should rather be understood as a tool of integral statecraft. The article outlines the main determinants of Russian security policy and puts hybrid warfare into perspective with the main technological disruptors affect the nature of contemporary warfare. The article finally advocates for a clearer division of work between NATO and the EU in countering hybrid threats.

Global Change, Peace & Security, 2020

Nowadays hybrid warfare is considered a significant security challenge; within this wider threat category are cyber incidents that are considered one of the main perceived threats in modern society for every country. The number of incidents in cyber space is constantly growing, but methods of its realisation are evolving. One of the most dangerous consequences of cyber-attacks is a planned or spontaneous chain effect that is accompanied by destructive results. Ukraine is used as a contemporary example of this type of attack and subversion. This is later put into context with trends and events on a wider international level that imply legal regulation conflicts with political and operational expediency in managing the problem of cyber-attacks.

Defence strategy-how to be better prepared to counter hybrid warfare? Policy Paper, author: Nikolay Slavkov " In the future, we should anticipate seeing more hybrid wars where conventional warfare, irregular warfare, asymmetric warfare, and information warfare all blend together, creating a very complex and challenging situation to the combatants; therefore it will require military forces to possess hybrid capabilities, which might help deal with hybrid threats. " ― Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono This policy paper is addressed to the Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union and aims to explore the possible options for strengthening the European defence against hybrid warfare. According to the last May's Report i of the Helsinki-based European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, "although the concept of hybrid threats is maturing, there are still multiple and different meanings of the term that complicate a consensus understanding of the problem." Regarding the definition of 'hybrid warfare' two diametrical opposite points must be taken into account. Some experts ii are questioning the need for this term, since the warfare – from ancient to modern times – has always been complex and can hardly be subsumed into a single adjective. They are arguing that in practice, any threat can be hybrid as long as it is not limited to a single form and dimension of warfare. When any threat or use of force is defined as hybrid, the term loses its value and causes confusion instead of clarifying the " reality " of modern warfare. Others iii , however, see this concept as very innovative and greatly describing the modern warfare, which involves the synchronised use of military and non-military means against specific vulnerabilities to create effects against its opponent. Whether or not we use the term 'hybrid' for describing this modern warfare, the problem the European defence faces remains the same: European countries are vulnerable to this complex and multidimensional warfare, which lies in the middle ground between conventional and unconventional means of war and which involves state and non-state actors. All available diplomatic, military, intelligence and economic resources must be applied in a coordinated manner in the so called "comprehensive approach". The goal of this policy paper is to provide and analyse suggestions on how the European defence could be enhanced in order to better counteract hybrid threats. The paper focuses on three main fields-military mobility of conventional units, cybersecurity, and online disinformation. The document concludes with pointing out the most concrete and attainable proposals – recommendations relating to the above mentioned fields.

Estonian National Defence College, ENDC Occasional Papers, 2017

The “hybrid warfare” is one of important topics of security related military thinkers and academics being an outcome of conflicts in Europe, Middle East and growing threat coming not only from military but mainly from non-military sources. It has been widely discussed also in the context of military developments in Russia. The paper is discussing the official approach to that term including NATO and Russian thinkers. It is touching also military developments of Russian Federation and non-military aspects of security based on perception of internal and external security threats.

Executive Summary The Hybrid War embodies a number of conflicts that occurred in the last two decades. The central hypothesis is that the relationship between security and technology has accelerated the transition from traditional kinds of conflict to contemporary hybrid warfare. The variables that I use as keywords throughout this (threat, media, actors, and Technology) will verify the veracity of this hypothesis. They are: A. the forces at work: They are the first element of distinction. It is conventional actors (states) and non-conventional actors (terrorists, secessionist forces). In Hybrid War, the conventional actors in the field only send forces with a high degree of specialisation (elite bodies created ad hoc for specific missions). This is demonstrated by the case of Unit 8200 IDF (Israeli Defense Force); B. the means used; C. the threat is the third variable. There is much research about Hybrid War because the forces are totally different than the traditional protagonists of the conflict. Through the example of the War on Terrorism (GWOT) is called "Network-centric warfare" because no conventional force field is a "network" (network) groups, financiers and military forces; D. technology is the fourth variable. The data show that, together with technological progress, the war industry has caused the shift from traditional conflict to the hybrid. In particular, the focus on the war industry technology has introduced the "cyberspace" and therefore the "cyberwarfare". you must refer to the Liberal School, whose authors have studied, since the first half of the nineties of the last century, the relationship between economic interdependence, security, and technology to place the "War Hybrid" in the discipline of International Relations. Given the above assumptions, there are three real examples, which fall under the "hybrid" conflicts category, to analyse: the case of Stuxnet, to highlight the relationship between Hybrid War and war information (or cyber warfare), the case of Ukraine as a hybrid conflict in toto and finally the case of Venezuela as an example of the relationship between Hybrid War and Diplomacy. Taken together, the three cases want to explain the dynamics of the new conflicts that fall under the category of War Hybrid. In conclusion, I identify two trends: - General trend: the relationship between security and technology revealed that the conflicts will become increasingly complex and, with them, the responses of States increasingly rely on technology and the subsequent specialization of the armed forces. - Trend about the European Union: Although the idea of a European army (and therefore of the European special forces) have not yet taken hold, the European Commission launched a minimum level of CPI (Critical Infrastructure Protection) and Resilience that Member States should respect. I consider these measures as the only advancement concerning the EU response Hybrid War.

National security and the future, 2020

Hybrid warfare is a significant threat to National Security and Countries in last 10 years. Hybrid activities are not new, but environment of cyberspace is completely different than before. We are witnessing a great expansion of the aforementioned fifth combat space, which knows no borders, fences, social or cultural barriers. Hybrid war as a form of endangering the security of sovereign states is primarily based on subversive activities in order to paralyze the state apparatus with the ultimate goal of changing the political leadership. This change of political leadership in the earlier period of history was far simpler and most often began and ended with armed aggression, the use of armed rebellion, or a coup. As modern societies increasingly turn to reliable alliances, mechanisms of collective security, conventional methods have become for quite some time less effective and outdated. The use of disinformation as an integral method of Hybrid Warfare has its roots in the concept of...

2021

Vojno delo, 2017

Globalisation with all its positive and negative effects, current events on the international scene, the practice of international relations development, outbreak and management of conflicts around the globe, the emergence of nonlinear and asymmetric forms of security threats, point to the existence and change of the developed conditions of disputes between states and non-state entities. On the one hand, we witness that classical forms of conflict or warfare do not guide state and nonstate entities in pursuing their interests. At the same time, the arm race effects and way of forces engagement lead to evident changes both in the sphere of real geopolitics, as well as in the part of the divergence of the spheres of influence and gaining effects of strategic advantage and the positioning of influential global, and also regional powers. Therefore, the question arises: can the conduct of the conflict by unconventional means be a priori called asymmetric warfare, does it exist, and what is the correlation of hybrid warfare with asymmetric security threats. This paper tends to summarise conceptual conditionality, diversity, as well as the harmonisation of the two mentioned phenomena, in a concise form, by analysing a broad theoretical base of scientific literature, normative acts and analytical documents, based on the analysis of generic conditions for the existence of asymmetric threats and hybrid warfare.

This article is about the evolution of NATO understanding of " hybrid wars ". The development of the concept is followed on the basis of documents adopted by the alliance. At the end, some conclusions are made about the current state of the concept.