How can Societies be Defended against Hybrid Threats?

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/Digital-Library/Articles/Detail/?lng=en&id=194510

This policy paper was originally published by the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) in September 2015.

Hybrid threats, hybrid operations and hybrid warfare have been widely discussed among political decision makers and security policy analysts, particularly during the past couple of years.

The latest round of discussions was sparked by Russia’s integrated use of military and other means in the Crimean peninsula during the early phases of the Ukraine crisis.[1]

While the descriptive and definitive sides of hybrid threats, operations, and warfare have been widely covered, there has been less discussion on what enables countries to engage in hybrid warfare and how to organise robust national defences to cope with hybrid threats.

This policy paper’s main contributions lie in introducing a framework to evaluate the strategic underpinnings for offensive hybrid operations and in listing suggestions for organising national defences to cope with the spectrum of hybrid threats.