DEFINITION AND SCOPE OF HYBRID THREATS

Abstract

The strategy that Russia implement in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine in 2014 drew the attention to hybrid war or the concept of hybrid threats mostly preferred because of being considered more extensive and as a result it is observed that this led to publication of numerous essays particularly on the term of hybrid war. It will be a little bit imaginary to expect that modern threat or armed attack as a conventional military clash between regular or irregular forces in our day. The reason for that is conflicts are conducted through implementation of various tactics and means apart from military forces most of the time. This type of struggle is characterized with the fact of hybrid threat. When we look at the literature, it is observed that there are not many publications on the concept of hybrid threat. However, it is quite possible that hybrid threats will be at the top of agenda of all states in the future. This is because politically stable and economically powerful countries have the purpose of overpowering the states that they desire to influence by concealing themselves or keeping in the background by means of using various methods and strategies at the same time and thus by means of weakening their will and sustaining power. This method and way is conceptualized as hybrid war or hybrid threat at the present time. However, it cannot be said that there is a consensus on how hybrid threats shall be defined. For that reason, this study aims at establishing a framework on the concept of hybrid threat gaining importance gradually in international conflicts mostly included in the friend states and aims at identifying the elements of it.