Introduction: hybrid warfare in post-Soviet spaces, is there a logic behind?

Abstract

Hybrid warfare, or whichever nomenclature one chooses to use, has emerged as one of the most innovative and popular instruments in contemporary international politics and is in no way limited to post-Soviet spaces. This special issue offers a multi-layered account of interstate and intrastate dynamics with respect to insurgent violence in the former Soviet Union over an extended period of time. The contributors explore both internal dynamics with respect to insurgencies and civil wars and the roles of external constituencies – whether through the use of hard power (for example in directly supporting insurgent groups) or soft power (through the power of international aid and strategic communications). Most importantly, however, they provide an insight into the complicated and diverse range of conflict-related situations and experiences relevant to Russia’s ‘near abroad’. This collection also offers nuance to accounts that seek to explain complicated dynamics in the former Soviet space with a single overarching realist or neorealist metanarrative that can occlude important insights to be derived from more multi-layered perspectives.