The Landscape of Hybrid Threats

Download or read book The Landscape of Hybrid Threats written by G. Giannopoulos and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, the topic of Hybrid Threats has dominated the security landscape in Europe. Whereas it may be considered a new topic by several stakeholders, in actual fact it is not. It is as old as conflict and warfare, but repackaged and empowered by changing security environment dynamics, new tools, concepts and technologies targeting vulnerabilities in several domains in an unprecedented manner. This new reality increases the outreach and effectiveness of today's Hybrid Threats in achieving highly strategic and overarching objectives such as undermining public trust in democratic institutions, deepening unhealthy polarization both nationally and internationally, challenging the core values of democratic societies, gaining geopolitical influence and power through harming and undermining others, and affecting the decision-making capability of political leaders. As a consequence, it is no surprise that today's Hybrid Threats belong to the sphere of serious and acute threats posed to the EU, NATO and their member states, and are recognized as such by policymakers across Europe and beyond. Addressing Hybrid Threats effectively requires a common understanding by practitioners, policymakers and politicians, early identification of the hybrid threat activity, the identification of gaps in prevention, preparedness and response, and the development of the right actions in order to bolster resilience both at a national and at a European/NATO level. To this end there is significant ongoing work being done at the academic, policymaking and operational level. At the academic level, new scientific knowledge is being produced. At the EU policymaking level, two Joint Communications have paved the way for acting in this area, and Hybrid Threats are recognized in a number of security-related policies, such as the EU Security Union Strategy adopted in July 2020. In EU and NATO member states significant changes have already been made at the national level, but more are needed. At the operational level, the EU has conducted the largest ever tabletop exercise on Hybrid Threats (Parallel and Coordinated Exercise, PACE 18) in collaboration with NATO. These efforts leave no doubt about the importance of Hybrid Threats for the EU. A careful analysis of these actions reveals that our understanding about Hybrid Threats and how they express themselves still draws very much on past experience. Since a solid conceptual basis has been lacking, it has hindered relevant stakeholders in improving their understanding of Hybrid Threats, while making it more challenging to design and implement effective comprehensive measures to address this very complex phenomenon both national and international levels. In order to address this gap, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC) and the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (Hybrid CoE) in Helsinki have joined forces to develop a conceptual model for characterizing Hybrid Threats accompanied by a framework for analysis.