Journal: Security and Defence Quarterly | Journal year: 2024
[ 1 ] Wydział Bezpieczeństwa Narodowego, Akademia Sztuki Wojennej | [ 2 ] National University of Political Science and Administration, Geopolitical Futures | [ P ] employee
[6.3] Security studies
EN Special Issue: Multidimensional challenges for national and international security in the context of hybrid warfare
2024
The Russian Federation’s full-scale military aggression against Ukraine has changed the architecture of international security, and has also served as a reminder of how serious a threat hybrid actions are to state and international security. Cyberattacks, information warfare, instrumentalisation of migratory movements, fuelling anti-refugee sentiment and acts of sabotage targeting the critical infrastructure of NATO and EU states are just examples of the broad spectrum of Russian activity. Hybrid activities not only expose Western states to further dangers, but can also destabilise their functioning. Their multidimensionality provokes an in-depth debate on new challenges to national and international security. The term hybrid threat, in turn, refers to an action taken by states and non-state actors with the aim of destabilising or harming the target of attack through the combined use of overt and covert means, both military and non-military. Unprecedented hybrid attacks are constantly being experienced by, for example, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, repelling aggressive disinformation activities and provocations against officers and soldiers involved in stopping illegal border crossing attempts organised by the Belarusian regime with the support and approval of the Kremlin. The cynical hybrid operation is part of Russia's long-term and hostile strategy against the West. This has been accompanied by another wave of economic shocks on global markets. Economic sanctions, energy and food crises, inflation in many countries, unstable financial markets, currency fluctuations, are all creating new challenges that have a direct impact on the contemporary security environment. In public discourse, more and more attention is being paid not only to the necessary crisis mitigation measures, but also to maintaining unity in allied and community structures.
