Understanding Hybrid Warfare

Hybrid Warfare

War is to crush the enemy to attain objectives that a conquering nation cannot get through peaceful means. 

As Clausewitz stated: 

 War is simply the continuation of poilitical intercourse with the addition of other means.  

 Hybrid warfare uses unconventional methods along with conventional methods of wars to subdue the enemy. Repress the will to fight back, make the enemy surrender and subjugate the enemy, hybrid warfare uses all means at its disposal. So hybrid warfare includes all means at its disposal to quash the enemy. 

Wikipedia defines hybrid warfare as follows: 

Hybrid warfare is military strategy which employs political warfare and blends conventional warfare, irregular warfare and cyberwarfare with other influencing methods, such as fake news, lawfare and electoral intervention.   

Concept of Hybrid Warfare 

 Border management and state-on-state wars have long remained a part of history. Therefore, it is considered conventional warfare. Whereas, irregular warfare invented unconventional means to thrash the enemy. Irregular warfare includes terrorism, asymmetric warfare, attacks on the industrial base of enemy countries, and so on. Hybrid warfare merges both, conventional and irregular warfare, to conquer tone down the enemy. 

 

Hybrid: Fusion of Irregular and Conventional War

Domains of Hybrid Warfare 

Hybrid warfare counts on multiple elements to the compliant enemy. Strategist device means to subdue enemy after analyzing the weaknesses of the targeted country. 

Gerasimov is the strategist alleged to have conceived the "Gerasimov doctrine" – combining military, technological, information, diplomatic, economic, cultural, and other tactics for the purpose of achieving strategic goals. 

Domains of Hybrid Warfare

 

Hybrid warfare employs all means and methods at its disposal to engage the enemy at multiple levels. Hybrid warfare strategizes to engage the enemy at many smaller fronts rather than one of two big spheres. By this, hybrid warfare increases the cognitive load on the targeted country with the aim to exhaust its resources. The belligerent party can use cyberattacks, diplomacy, disinformation warfare propagandas, support of local unrest, irregular forces, regular military forces, economic warfare, hydropower, and many other means at its conveyance. 

 Asymmetric warfare, in which non-state actors wage a war against the state or state institutions using guerilla warfare tactics, could be a part of the hybrid strategy. Asymmetric warfare is the mean by which a target country attacks specific areas of the targeted country rather than expanding into total war. 

Symmetric and Asymmetric Warfare 

Asymmetric warfare is a war between belligerents whose relative military power differs significantly, or whose strategy or tactics differ significantly. This is typically a war between a standing, professional army and an insurgency or resistance movement militias who often have the status of unlawful combatants.

Hybrid warfare like its name depicts uses multiple means to sabotage an enemy. It is a blend of different methods to compliant the enemy. Therefore, the most apposite step is to recognize the threat. 

Recognition of Threats 

It is not necessary that hybrid war must use all its domain. It can work in limited and specified domains, therefore, the most important step is to recognize the threat. If a targeted country could not realize timely at what point it will be targeted, failure is certain in that condition. 

 

Recognition of Threat

 

Defense of state and country, in today's complex world, must be comprehensively materialized. Developing nations should continue to struggle for peace and stability. To keep pace with progressing world, realizing the threat, blocking and eliminating it must be fulfilled without compromising at developmental projects. This stands true for all states and countries of the world.