Suchergebnisse

What do we speak of when we speak of 'hybrid warfare', a notion that has become prominent in discussions of European security? The article shows that this question is difficult to answer, as the hybrid warfare discourse is not only vague, but also consists of multiple, and at times contradictory, narratives. While talking and writing about supposedly the same thing, participants in the hybrid warfare debate often suggest markedly different ideas about the precise nature and target of the threat, offer different responses and draw upon different expertise. Grounding our argument in critical scholarship on narratives, security knowledge and hybrid warfare, we build a framework for studying security narratives around the four elements of threat, threatened value, response and underlying knowledge. This framework is utilised in a case study of Czechia, a country that has played a pioneering and outsized role in European hybrid warfare debates. We identify three narratives of hybrid warfare – defence, counterinfluence and education – which present markedly different understandings of 'hybrid warfare', and ways to defend against it. Our intervention hopes to contribute to disentangling the contradictions of the hybrid warfare discourse, itself a necessary precondition for both sound state policy and an informed public debate.

The European Union is in a political and security crisis. The crisis tends to become existential, which undermines the future of the EU as an integration project. The conflict of values between liberal democracy and authoritarianism is becoming an important factor in international security.
Negative current trends in the international security environment increase risks for the EU. In its foreign policy the EU does not demonstrate the ability to speak with one voice. It does not support EU's ambition to be a global international actor. Within the EU, centrifugal tendencies and Euroscepticism appear to be gaining ground. Among the destructive external and internal factors affecting European security, the hybrid threat posed by Moscow's ambitious plans and aggressive actions is at the forefront. These actions are aimed at undermining democracies, international solidarity and security. Russia is systematically acting to destabilize the EU, using a set of means of destructive influence, trying to undermine European unity both externally and internally.
Russia's aggression against Ukraine, operations in Syria and Libya, interference in domestic processes in the EU, etc., are exacerbating destructive trends in the European security environment. In this con- text, the EU faces the need to increase its resilience, as a tool to deter destructive actions of the Russian Federation and a means to mitigate their effect.
The purpose of the article is to analyze the causes and consequences of Russia's hybrid influence against the EU, plus to identify the means of Russia's destructive impact, such as the spread of misinformation, active special operations, energy pressure, etc.
The article examines the imperatives of Russian foreign policy, the impact of the value crisis on the European project and its future, as well as obstacles to strategic dialogue between the EU and Russia.
Europe returns to searching for its collective European identity, discussing revitalization of the global European narrative. Maintaining a system of liberal democratic values is a key precondition for the future of the EU in order to avoid the risk of disintegration of the European Union.
Sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, its national security could be guaranteed only by full-fledged integration into the European political, economic and security space. Europe's hesitations regarding the European perspective for Ukraine, which arise under pressure from the Kremlin and internal contradictions in the EU, negatively affect the security environment in Europe.

This special issue explores how and to what extent 'hybridity' informs national policy, doctrines, and military transformation in Asia. The introduction engages with three preliminary issues as a way to set the broader analytical context. It reviews the concept of 'hybrid warfare' to make the case that versions of this notion have long been a feature of regional strategic thinking and practice. It similarly argues that maritime geography has had an impact on how 'hybrid' courses of actions in the region have been conceptualised, notably in regards to 'grey zone' operations. Lastly, it reviews the question of how to engage with the issue of the effectiveness of such strategies.

Concepts of hybrid warfare and climate security are contested on their own, and are rarely considered as connected in planning for future security risks. Yet climate change presents new hazards for national security, and opportunities for those looking to foment instability and uncertainty in traditional institutions. This article examines the connections between climate change risks and hybrid war strategies, and focuses on concepts of resilience targeting, information warfare, and geoengineering, illustrating that 'full spectrum' analyses of security are necessary in developing future security strategies.

This paper deals with the concept of political topology in the light of geopolitics and hybrid warfare. Traditional geopolitics can be regarded as a point of departure for the search for better tools for political decision making. Comparison and confrontation of different, theoretical and practical, concepts of hybrid warfare can be heuristically inspiring and lead to a compact system of politically relevant knowledge – to political topology.

In today's world, the combination of propaganda, disinformation, psychological pressure, and attacks on information and communication systems pose a danger no less than conventional armament. Productive scenarios for counteracting hybrid threats are based on the use of modern technologies of strategic communications, management of subjects of military conflicts, and information processing.
This article is aimed at analyzing the basic concepts of modern hybrid warfare and finding place, purpose, objectives, and features of strategic communications.
An integrated use of strategic communications and reflexive control technologies is proposed to develop hybrid warfare scenarios.

"Der Artikel befasst sich mit einem Teilaspekt der hybrid warfare, nämlich dem gezielten Einsatz von Informationen zum Zweck der Verschleierung, Desinformation und Propaganda. Die Verfasser schlagen eine genaue Bestimmung der Schwelle zwischen völkerrechtlich unbedenklichen Handlungen sowie völkerrechtswidriger Intervention und Gewaltanwendung vor. Sie gehen dabei in Bezug auf bestimmte Formen subversiver Propaganda weiter als die momentan herrschende Meinung, die in solchen Fällen höchstens einen Verstoß gegen das Interventionsverbot annimmt. Sie betonen, dass einerseits Formen von Verschleierung und Desinformation die Schwelle der 'coercion' nicht erreichen und somit das Interventionsverbot nicht verletzen. Andererseits aber können besonders intensive Formen der subversiven Propaganda, die einen Militäreinsatz ermöglichen oder unmittelbar vorbereiten, unter bestimmten Umständen selbst einen Verstoß gegen das Gewaltverbot darstellen." (Autorenreferat)