A concept has emerged in these times of dangerous tensions in Ukraine with Russia, which is relatively new, that of the “hybrid war”also called hybrid attack, hybrid strategy or hybrid tactics.
It is a theory of military strategy in which all kinds of means and procedures be it conventional force or any other irregular means such as insurgency, terrorism, migration, natural resources and even more sophisticated ones through the use of the latest technologies (cyber warfare).
The strategy includes other methods of influence such as fake news, diplomacy, legal war and electoral intervention from abroad and any other in which influence over the population is vital.
Hybrid conflicts involve efforts at different levels with the aim of destabilizing a functional state and cause a polarization of their society, indicate military specialists. Unlike what happens in conventional warfare, the “center of gravity” of hybrid warfare is a certain sector of the population.
Members of the National Guard of Ukraine in Kiev, the capital. AP Photo
The fear
The enemy tries to influence the most prominent political strategists and key decision makers by combining the use of pressure with subversive operations. Fear is one of the tools to use.
It is a concept of recent creation -approximately 2014- with a non-precise definition in which, according to the executor, different nuances are established, such as establishing whether the use of conventional and irregular means is carried out simultaneously or not.
The main objectives of hybrid threats are:
one) Erode the confidence of citizens in their companies and institutions.
two) generate distrust in the democratic, political and administrative system.
In Kiev, life for now goes on smoothly. AP Photo
3) undermine the social cohesion or the social models of states, political communities (such as the EU) or international organizations (NATO, for example).
4) embrittle the management or governance system so that it has fewer capabilities.
5) Convince of the decline of a political or business system (both to the population of the victim and to their own population).
how to deal with it
To fight against hybrid threats a cell has been created within the European External Action Service to receive and analyze information in this area through intelligence analysis.
Even in the face of this new strategy, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has drawn up recommendations for its member states.
These include refraining from resorting to hybrid actions in international relations and fully comply with the provisions of International Law, in particular the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders and defend those criteria.
Also, intensify international cooperation to identify hybrid adversaries and all kinds of hybrid war threats, and establish the applicable legal framework.
Other recommendations is to take measures to increase the awareness of citizens on hybrid threats and their ability to react rapidly to such threats, as well as to maintain and strengthen the measures taken by the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to counter hybrid threats, and to strengthen cooperation in this ambit.
The conflict in Ukraine is clearly a scenario of a hybrid war, so it will require efforts to counter it.
It is, at least for now, a war without war, without cannon fire and full of intimidation maneuvers, Exhibitionism and the use of civil and military technologies through which a considerable advantage over the adversary is sought.
Source: ANSA
PB
