1st Edition
Preparing for Hybrid Threats to Security Collaborative Preparedness and Response
This book examines hybrid threats within the broader context of a security crisis in Europe.
As geopolitical tensions increase and great power rivalries intensify, can states protect their communities? While conventional wars are fought, parallel battles take place by more subtle and non-violent means. This multi-disciplinary book examines how hybrid threats undermine political governance and social stability in liberal democracies, covering aggressors, targeted states and victimized communities. It seeks to address how aggressor states undermine liberal democracies under the threshold of conflict, and the role played by hybrid threats as aggressor states prepare for full-scale war. The chapters also explore how liberal democracies organize and interact to detect hybrid threats, arguing that, in order to increase resilience, politicians and government agencies must involve the private sector and citizens in threat-reduction policies. The analysis builds upon the latest research in the international crisis management literature.
This book will be of interest to students of security studies, hybrid warfare, defence studies and International Relations, as well as professional practitioners.
- Understanding Hybrid Threats: An Introduction
Odd Jarl Borch and Tormod Heier
Part I: The Threat
2. Contemporary Research on Hybrid Threats: Status and Future Avenues
Nina M. Bjørge and Marte Høiby
3. Hybrid Threats as a Threat to Democracy: Soft and Smart Tactics and Three Dimensions of Democracy
Tanja Ellingsen
4. Identifying Hybrid Threats from a National Security Perspective: The Case of Chinese Hybrid Threats in Australia
Patrick Cullen
Part II: The Ukrainian Experience
5. Hybrid Threats in Cyberspace: What Do Russia’s Cyberspace Operations in Ukraine Tell Us?
Mass Soldal Lund
6. The Transformation of Hybrid Threats into Full-Scale War: The Case of Ukraine, 2014-2022
Yevhen Mahda and Viacheslav Semenenko
7. Countering Russia’s Hybrid War: The Orchestration of Ukraine’s National Resilience
Valerii Hordiichuk, Nina Andriianova and Andrii Ivashchenko
Part III: Response Strategies
8. Civic Communities or Armed Forces as First Line of Defence?
Tormod Heier
9. Municipal Preparedness Against Hybrid Threats: How Can Military Experiences Be Used?
Jannicke Thinn Fiskvik and Tormod Heier
10. Hybrid Threats and the ‘New’ Total Defence: The Case of Sweden
Joakim Berndtsson
11. Information Sharing in Complex Crises: The Case of Joint Domain-Specific Centers in Norway
Line Djernæs Sandbakken and Ørjan Nordhus Karlsson
12. Hybrid Threat Intelligence Through Virtual Networks: The Role of Network Entrepreneurs
Odd Jarl Borch
Part IV: Knowledge and Resilience
13. Hybrid Threats and Comprehensive Defence in Small Diverse Societies: The Case of Estonia
Kairi Kasearu, Tiia-Triin Truusa and Liina-Mai Tooding
14. Hybrid Threats and the Power of Identity: Comparing Croatia and Ukraine
Gordan Akrap and Maksym Kamenetskyi
15. Building Competence Against Hybrid Threats: Training and Exercising Hybrid Command Organizations
Bjørn T. Bakken, Thorvald Hærem and Inger Lund-Kordahl
16. Competence for Hybrid Threats: A Strategic Competitive Development Model
Leif Inge Magnussen, Glenn-Egil Torgersen, Ole Boe and Herner Saeverot
Part V: Conclusions
17. Towards a Hybrid Threat Response Model
Odd Jarl Borch and Tormod Heier
Biography
Odd Jarl Borch is a Professor of Strategy at the Nord University Business School, Bodo, Norway. He is the author of more than 150 scientific publications. He has served on several government committees within industry development, safety and preparedness, including the Norwegian Total Preparedness Commission.
Tormod Heier is a Professor of Military Strategy and Operations at the Norwegian Defence University College, Norway. He has edited or authored 14 books, on crisis management, security and defence policy, and military conflicts. He was awarded The Norwegian PEN’s Ossietzky Price for Freedom of Speech in 2017, and The Norwegian Army’s Medal of Merit in 2023.
