The hybrid warfare: The newly hatched out threat against global stability

 

By Silviu Craescu.

 

The open season was just trumpeted on shaping up ghostlike statal entities coexisting within the boundaries of other legitimate states. Novarussia and ISIS are good textbook examples. Both of them are financially backed by other states and disturb, behead institutions and both of them want to conquer other  territories.

When a country is under attack  from conventional ground, maritime or air forces the countermeasures to be taken are expected to make a rather pretty clear picture. But, what happens when  it is attacked by a composite mix comprising special forces, information or disinformation briefing campaigns  seasoned and spiced with  back door   under the table dirty deals? What would look like the best answer in this case? And furthermore yet, how the international organisations dedicated to human right and global security defense, such as UNO or NATO, could adapt themselves to such types of assaults?

General Philip Breedlove, the  NATO  commander says: „Russia’s usage of  uniformless troops, so called „the little green men” and probably the most amazing piece of information in the blitz krieg  I have ever seen in the entire history of war intelligence, was just a part of the first Russian assault in Ukraine”. „What we see in Russia these days, in this hybrid approach of war waging is that they make use of all the tools and instruments available and under their control, just to stir and enflame the spirits, then to proceed to exploit them through  military specific mechanisms”, he says.

What is the hybrid war anyway?

„The war categories are  obscure and they simply do not belong in the elegant and clean cut case studies category. We may very well expect to see more instruments to be simultaneously deployed in complex forms of hybrid warfare”, says Robert M. Gates, the US secretary of Defense. The hybrid war is a summation of two opposing forces, legal and illegal, conventional and unconventional, regulated and non regulated, put up in order to mount an assault. The hybrid war may be defined as a contemporary form of guerrilla skirmish blending in  both modern  technology and modern methods of  mobilisation and involves four threats: traditional, non regulated, catastrophic and highly disruptive terrorism which exploits technology to level the score against military superiority. Seen from the media angle, it is the concentration of the asymmetric warfare ops waged on three decisive battlefields : against the population living in the conflict zone, against the back home population and against the international community.

The simultaneous combination of weapons, used by enemy

The enemy shall use a simultaneous combination of conventional weapons, non regulated warfare, terrorism and criminal behaviour on battlefield with the purpose of reaching political targets. In waging such a warfare there shall be employed disguised  hybrid soldiers blended in and undercover within the civil population. The hybrid warfare is the best definition of the modern conflicts, as it highlights the non regulated war, the civil war, the insurgence and the terrorism. And so the hybrid wars are both of physical spectrum and as conceptual dimension. The physical spectrum is a fight against an armed enemy. By conceptual conflict we understand a fight with the purpose of gaining the control of and the support from the native population dwelling in the theatre of war, the proactive support of the fronts back home helping them to withstand against the intervention of other nations and the support of the international community. In order to make safe and stabilize the native population, the acting forces should immediately rebuild and safeguard the security, the basic public services, the local government, the self defense army units and the  most essential  elements of economy.

A brand new  form of warfare

It is a brand new form of warfare, non conformist in flavour where are employed all ways of mounting attacks. War looks no longer the way it used to be back in the Middle Ages when troopers were aligned facing each other. These are non regulated armies, non conformist where any conceivable kind of attack may be used, even with troops bearing no military rank ensigns, the very way Russia does lately in Ukraine, guerrilla forces equipped with modern war weaponry and the cybernetic attack. This is a part of a brand new war soon to engulf the entire planet: the hybrid warfare. It is way more subversive than the war against terrorism simply because just anybody could trigger it provided this ‘anybody’ gets athwart some system and thrives to make it his own country. Cutting out the  electricity in some city and instantly the panic strikes;   if we cut the water supply off  we might go ahead and  lay the entire zone in submission. Nobody knows about our true colours because we pretend we are civilians wearing civilian clothes.

Combined methods

The partisans in the World War II had readily available ample supplies of Russian uniforms and German outfits also. In 2002, the Chechens used to mount attacks even in their own cities on their own turf just to off-track the Russian schemes of control and simply to wreak confusion. Probably the most recent example of hybrid war could be the Hezbollah performance in Lebanese war in 2006. During this conflict the Hezbollah has fought side by side jointly with Israeli army up to the point of impasse due to using of fixed points, in disguise and intricate subterranean tunnels and the conventional war manoeuvres of the infantry in the the Lebanese villages. The final outcome of these tactics was that the defense Israeli forces failed to conquer even one single village along the Lebanon – Israel border. The might of Israel, with modern up to date military capabilities and state of the art air force avionics, were all of them good for nothing when facing the Hezbollah units  who used reinforced bunkers and latest breaking Russian guns able to destroy just any type of armoured vehicle. At some point, Hezbollah used a missile against the INS Hanit ship, killing four seamen aboard. All these methods were further enhanced by the successful break and tapping of the mobile cellular phones netcomm system used by the Israeli troops, therefore having first hand and real time information about the enemy’s moves in the theatre.

The Might of Hezbollah

The Hezbollah is far more than just a mere military force and its might has its roots just in this very reason. Its manifold structure comprises  political, social, diplomatic and informational components making these all stand as the toughest backbone for its military structure. This foundation, built up in years of accruing humanitarian aids, of painstaking and careful erection of the infrastructure, careful education of the Lebanese people, would be able to keep itself balanced even in a case of military defeat. Like the deeply set root of a plant, the other implication of Hezbollah shall come to full blossom many years later on springing up fresh force to replenish and replace the ones fallen on the battle fields.

The international law, enforced by the Putin’s own interpretation

At some point, during the Ukraine crisis, Russia had deployed 40,000 troops along the Ukraine border, yet since the seed of instability was sawn in Ukraine, the conventional forces were no longer the one to be used but rather other mixed flavour techniques and  unorthodox, called in one word ‘hybrid’. Russia is using this war for a national advantage, taking up territories, enforcing its will on the premises, invading and annexing territories. Russia uses commandos pretending they are non Russian.

Putin himself declared that the defending of Russian ethnic groups does not depend on the country where they live, neither on the laws thereof, nor of the government of the Constitution Act of the country where they currently reside, but depends on the Russian law. Which is resented as a shock for all that we are currently familiar with as being the international law.

What Next?

Recent Articles