Hybrid Warfare – A Form of Asymmetric Conflict

Abstract

AbstractFor a few decades now, a vivid scholarly discussion centred on new forms of conflict has been developing. Military historians and political scientists entered into debates building consistent pro and counter-arguments about whether armed conflict at the end of the 20thcentury and beginning of the 21st century features novel aspects. Several concepts have been coined in order to describe the nature and dynamic of warfare in a post-clausewitzian/post-conventional era, such as new wars, Fourth Generation Warfare, compound wars and last, but not least, hybrid warfare. This article will briefly present the core of each category and will stress hybrid warfare as most recent development of such intellectual categories. The main argument defended here is that hybrid wars are a contemporary feature of global politics, mostly associated with non-state actors (such as terrorist groups) and with Russia’s strategies in eastern Ukraine, but also that they are a form of asymmetric conflict.