Hybrid warfare is a concept that has gained relevance in the field of International Relations in recent decades.
It refers to a type of conflict that combines a variety of conventional and unconventional tactics, both military and non-military, to achieve strategic objectives.
These conflicts typically involve a mix of actions such as cyber warfare, disinformation, psychological warfare, covert operations, economic sabotage, terrorism, and other forms of non-traditional activity.
The main objective of hybrid warfare It is to weaken the adversary and undermine its capacity for resistance, without necessarily resorting to direct military confrontation.
The actors involved in the hybrid war They can be nation-states, terrorist groups, criminal organizations, or even non-state actors.
This type of conflict can be especially challenging for authorities to address, as it involves threats that go beyond the traditional military sphere and can affect society as a whole, including the economy, politics and public perception.
In short, hybrid warfare represents a complex and multifaceted strategic approach that seeks to leverage diverse tools and tactics to achieve political and military objectives. without the need for a large-scale direct confrontation.
History of hybrid warfare
The term commonly known as “war” has implied, throughout history, the use of conventional forces strategically coordinated but not operationally integrated.
This system, as seen in the conflicts of Israel (1973) Today it has become relatively obsolete due to the increase in technological and weapons sophistication used.
Therefore, at the end of the Cold War and as a consequence of the superiority of the United States in the Gulf War of 1911, the concept of hybrid war appears, under the interpretive framework of composite war.
However, although colonels of the Chinese army (Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, 1999) had already used this type of tactic in 2000, it was not until 2005 when the prestigious magazine Proceedings publish Future Warfare: The Rise of Hybrid Wars and the term begins to be delimited and a new theoretical apparatus for victory in a conflict is formed.
Extending this concept during the Israel – Hizb Allah conflict (2006) and delimiting it in the proliferation of strategic threats, both regular and irregular, to security coming from non-linear actors that question the status quo, in order to generate an opportunity to avoid the tendency of military powers to dominate the battlefield.
There is diverse literature in which different connotations of the same term are collected depending on the year of publication and the State.
The assimilation to irregular warfare as an exemplification in terrorism.
US Department of Defense
In the case of US Department of Defense The concept has not yet been defined, considering it as an increasing complexity of asymmetric conflict, not a new form of war.
FOR Hoffman, its great driver, consists of the combination of threats, whatever the form and tactic used; while for the colonel McCuen is a Symmetrical and asymmetrical warfare composition using traditional military tactics trying to achieve control of local populations while stability operations.
Hybrid Warfare Definition
We can determine that it is a armed conflict of decentralized control between distributed military and non-military activities, by combining traditional, irregular, terrorist actions and disruptive criminal methods, forcing a “proximate battle” through active means (attack) and passive means (absorption effort) that affect attrition on the contrary. Whose conceptual development is based on the implicit recognition of the technological supremacy of the great Western powers (the US, especially).
View: What is Hybrid Warfare and how Hybrid Threats affect us
It is necessary, therefore, to conclude with the definition of the previous concept, analyze what is known as asymmetric war.
Current Hybrid War News – Russia and NATO
The head of Germany's intelligence services, Bruno Kahl, has warned that Russia's hybrid warfare tactics, such as sabotage, cyberattacks and disinformation, could lead NATO to invoke the mutual defence clause of Article 5.
According to Kahl, Moscow is seeking to weaken Western unity, not necessarily to occupy territories.
Recent incidents, such as the cutting of submarine cables and an increase in cyberattacks, have been attributed to Russian actors, although the Kremlin denies involvement.
Experts say NATO lacks a clear strategy to deal with such attacks, leaving Europe vulnerable to the growing Russian threat.
Read the full story. Source: Euronews
What is asymmetric warfare?
This adjective being the most prominent feature of the new wars, especially transnational ones. Delimiting itself within the framework of the adoption of strategies with different models by the parties and the difference in capabilities.
Its defining element is the different nature of the agents who seek vulnerabilities in the strongest through guerrilla warfare, subversion, kidnappings, etc.
While the parties have different perceptions of the conflict.
For the strong one, there are legal, political, geographical and temporal limitations typical of the international system and where the conflict develops; while for the weak it is a total war.
This war revolves around narratives, speeches and other explanations.
It is a discourse of contestation that allows the weak to challenge the strong, inviting others to follow in their footsteps and generates a narrative that sustains it..
Thus, phenomena of violence appear, discontinuous acts of irregular or terrorist war.
Conclusions on what hybrid warfare is
The lack of agreement in the previous conceptualizations prevents marking a trend specific to each one. and that, on the contrary, hybrid warfare is based on the theoretical framework of asymmetric warfare - nourished by guerrilla warfare, insurgent tactics, and countless asymmetric approaches that erode combat power.
Considered by many as a subset of asymmetric warfare. And, for others, as different categories, where a doctrinal perspective is framed – asymmetric war – and the use of the given elements – hybrid war.
LL.M in International Business Law and Law from ISDE and graduated in Law and International Relations from Loyola University. CEO and business internationalization consultant at Reáculoateypunto.
