Introduction to Hybrid Warfare

In the Nuclear Age, it is disastrous for countries to confront each other in the battlefield directly, so they avoid it. Moreover, direct military confrontation has economic and human costs, for example, in the 20-year Afghan war America spent more than 760 billion dollars which is a huge amount. Nowadays countries use Hybrid Warfare tactics to achieve their objectives and weaken their rivals.

Definition of Hybrid Warfare

John McCuen’s Definition of Hybrid Warfare

“Spectrum wars with both physical and conceptual dimensions: the former, a struggle against an armed enemy and the latter, a wider struggle for control and support of the combat zone’s indigenous population, the support of the home fronts of the intervening nations, and the support of the international community.”

NATO Definition of Hybrid Warfare

“Warfare . . . where a wide range of overt and covert military, paramilitary, and civilian measures are employed in a highly integrated design. The adversary tries to influence influential policymakers and key decision makers by combining kinetic operations with subversive effort. The aggressor often resorts to clandestine actions, to avoid attribution and retribution.”

Objectives of Hybrid Warfare

1. Indirect Warfare
2. Destabilize Your Rivals
3. Disturb the Policy Makers of Your Rivals

Indirect Warfare

The first objective of Hybrid Warfare is to use indirect tactics to achieve goals. These are clandestine and intelligence-based attacks. Therefore, the victim is mostly surprised and unaware of the attacks. The international community cannot do anything to help the victim country. The reason is that the attacked country has no proof or evidence to bring the enemy to justice. Hence, it is a win-win situation for the attacker.

Destabilize Your Rivals

Hybrid Warfare is a good way to destabilize your rivals. Tactics, such as cyber-attacks can be used to freeze important websites, banking channels, and nuclear facilities. These attacks are very tough to trace. So they are an advantageous way to destabilize rivals.

Disturb the Policy Makers of Your Rivals

Hybrid War attacks are surprising and unconventional attacks. They confuse the policymakers because in some cases they are unaware of the attacks. Consequently, they cannot make pragmatic policies to revitalize their country.

Theories of Hybrid War

There are two famous theories of Hybrid Warfare: 1) Global Dominance Theory and 2) Warden’s Five Ring Theory.

Global Dominance Theory

The Global Dominance Theory of Hybrid Warfare was given by Mackinder. In this theory, he says that the United States of America has to increase its influence in the Eurasian states to maintain its global dominance. To achieve this objective, the USA has to use Hybrid War tactics in the Eurasian region against Russia.

Warden’s Five Ring Theory

There are five factors to run a country:

1. Leadership
2. System Essentials
3. Infrastructure
4. Population
5. Military

This theory says that if a country wants to wage a Hybrid War against the rival country, it has to use tactics to influence the population. The population ring can be compelled to go against the leadership ring through disinformation. As a result, mass protests start in the country. If the leadership tries to suppress it then civil war starts and important infrastructure is damaged. If the leadership accepts the demands of the protestors then the regime in the country is changed. Hence, Hybrid Warfare goes in the favour of the attacking country.

Tools and Tactics of Hybrid Warfare

The following are the tools and Tactics of the Hybrid War.

• Color Revolution
• Insurgency or Non-State Actors or Terrorism
• Economic Leverage
  • This includes foreign aid, economic sanctions, etc.
• Cyber Attacks
  • Launch cyber-attacks on important websites, banking channels, and nuclear programs of a country.
• Information Warfare or Propaganda
  • It includes social media fake accounts, and narrative building against state institutions or government. Moreover, it includes disinformation and misinformation.

How to Counter Hybrid Warfare?

DDR Approach can be used to counter Hybrid Warfare. It stands for Detect, Deter, and Respond.

• Detect
  • It includes finding out how a Hybrid War is being fought against a country. What are the loopholes of the victim country? Additionally, what are the problems of the country that can be exploited by the attackers?
• Deter
  • In this step of countering Hybrid Warfare, a country can take the international community on board and earn their trust for future use. This way the country can show its soft power to the attackers to increase deterrence.
• Respond
  • In this step, the victim country can expose the enemy’s Hybrid Warfare Tactics through international lobbying. It can pressurize international organizations to put sanctions on the enemy. Moreover, it can strengthen its internal dynamics to grow national harmony. It can also facilitate its population to avoid their exploitation by the enemy. Lastly, a country can respond with a strong foreign policy.