Russia and ‘hybrid warfare’

ABSTRACT

In the aftermath of the Crimea annexation in March 2014, the idea of ‘hybrid warfare’ quickly gained prominence as a concept that could help to explain the success of Russian military operations in this conflict. Although the concept continues to enjoy widespread popularity in both scholarly and policy circles, its utility as an analytical tool is also heavily contested. This article adds to the literature critical of the ‘hybrid warfare’ concept. It argues that in addition to the fact that what is now described as a ‘hybrid’ approach to war is nothing new, the problems pertaining to its utility for the study of contemporary Russia go deeper than this. ‘Hybrid warfare’ inadequately reflects the direction of Russian military modernisation and as such has led to a skewed understanding of Russian military capabilities. Moreover, the tendency to use ‘hybrid warfare’ not only to conceptualise developments in the Russian military, but in the country’s foreign policy in general, can lead to serious unintended consequences.

KEYWORDS:

• Hybrid warfare
• Russia
• strategy
• Putin
• foreign policy
• NATO

Acknowledgements

The research for this article was conducted as part of a project funded by the Finnish Prime Minister’s Office, government’s analysis, assessments and research activities fund. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author. For the duration of the project the author was based at the University of Helsinki’s Aleksanteri Institute as a senior researcher. She would like to thank everybody at the institute for their support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Bettina Renz is an associate professor at the University of Nottingham's School of Politics and International Relations. She received her PhD from the University of Birmingham's Centre for Russia and East European Studies in 2005 where she is also a senior honorary fellow. She has previously lectured defence studies for King's College London at the Royal Air Force College, Cranwell and spent the academic year 2015/2016 as a senior researcher at the University of Helsinki's Aleksanteri Institute. Her main research expertise is strategic studies with a particular interest in contemporary Russia. She has published widely on Russian defence and security policy.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. For official information on the EastStratCom team see http://www.eeas.europa.eu/top_stories/2015/261115_stratcom-east_qanda_en.htm

2. For official information on the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence see http://www.stratcomcoe.org/