Hybrid warfare

Hybrid warfare is the new way of making war. This is a new way to make war that is emerging quickly. This military strategy mixes normal warfare with irregular warfare and cyber warfare. Hybrid warfare normally creates insecurity about who is the aggressor. In a way we know, but we are not sure. Nobody knows for sure who the enemy is. The enemy does not use uniform as in a normal warfare and this might be almost anybody being at war against a country. Often we refer to this type of war as a hybrid threat (USA) and hybrid warfare in technical literature.hyb

Still we are missing a good usable definition of this term, and often we are left with a term that describes irregular methods of war against another force. Perhaps this is a term that might be used to describe all types of war that is not normal war. Still, hybrid warfare refers to a type of war that is not done in the open. It does not interfere in why there is a war, but only the choice of method.

Hybrid warfare normally connects with a non-standard and complex structure. It might be, but doesn’t need to be a state. I might be an independent group with a distinct motivation that works partly underground. Perhaps we have soldiers dressed as soldiers without indications of state association; as we saw in Ukraine. In this distinct type of warfare we find a use of techniques that are unique. War as we know it is reduced to a minimum, and a different style of war based on irregular tactics and perhaps terror like actions rule. Perhaps you might get associations to criminal groupings and brutal violence when you study the techniques used in hybrid warfare. This type of warfare does not require the same amount of soldiers as normal warfare. The soldier is difficult to separate from the normal population, and is therefore difficult to beat without civil casualties. Another aspect is the selection of methods that normally is the prime of what exist on the market. Out are bow and arrow, and in is laser guided rockets and drones. Internet is used for publicity and to get more people to join the group. This “new type” of making war is found on three arenas: as a normal battlefield war, indigenous population and in the international society.hyb2

It is difficult to fight a hybrid war of a simple reason who is the enemy; where is he? These types of wars starts without the attacked knowing he is under attack, and finishes without the attacked knowing it is over.  The response is late and when it comes it is finish. We might find the measures to fight these new battles as difficult to accept.  Since we have to detain all possible suspects and treat all as potential suspects. The army has to turn against the population, and that raises other discussions.

Now experts suspect Sweden is under a hybrid attack.



The Swedish Counter-Intelligence Report
NATO SPS Advanced Research Workshop