Maps as a Powerful Weapon of Hybrid Warfare in the Context of Russia’s Modern Aggression against Ukraine

Creators of propaganda utilize all available tools and technological advancements at their disposal. One such tool is visual communication. Many studies on visual propaganda focus on cinema and animated films, but it is also important to closely examine the development of wartime cartoons. Alongside war posters, they represent one of the earliest forms of visualizing war propaganda. The purpose of the article is to analyze and characterize propaganda cartoons using examples from history and the present as a form of war propaganda and an element of hybrid warfare tactics. Cartoons emerged with the development of print media and continue to exist in both paper and digital forms. Cartoons are a form of political commentary, but they can also serve as a tool for propaganda. With the advancement of technologies and the Internet, memes have also become part of this form of communication. This article analyzes the significance of various types of visual communication, specifically the graphic form of communication – illustrations, graphics in the press, caricatures, and Internet memes. It summarizes the milestones in the development of visual communication forms, from cave paintings to graphic images on the Internet. The most recent publications exploring the growing influence of visual mass media in contemporary society are also mentioned. Wartime cartoons are examined as a form of propaganda, with examples from history and the present. The article analyzes the images, plots, and characters of political caricatures and memes, highlighting the increasing use of graphic design programs for creating digital graphics. The focus is on historical examples from World War I and World War II, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in 2014, and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The role of memes, as a phenomenon of contemporary popular culture, is also discussed. Cartoons and memes are considered as an element of hybrid warfare tactics. The conclusions emphasize that with the advancement of technology, the graphic form of communication has evolved into a powerful tool for war propaganda, and that cartoons and memes on military subjects are a crucial component of hybrid warfare, a highly effective means of influencing the morale of the recipient. Keywords: propaganda, caricatures, memes, press, war.

Visual interactive tools are of great importance for monitoring and analysis of geographical data, and, in particular, traffic data. Substantial research effort goes into visualization techniques of various kinds of geography-bound traffic data. Unfortunately, such techniques are very domain-specific and often lack useful features. We propose an interactive visualization system for monitoring and analyzing traffic data on a 3D globe. Our system is general and can be transparently used in different domains, which we examplify by two simulated demonstrations of use cases: Logistic Service and Data Communication. Using these examples, we show that our approach is more general than the current state of the art, and that there are significant similarities between several domains in need of interactive visualization, which are mostly treated as completely separate.

The article analyzes the events of the first phase of the Russia-Ukraine hybrid warfare, focusing on Kharkiv (the second largest city located 40 km from the Russian border) as an example. The authors argue that during the first weeks of the invasion Kharkiv was supposed to serve as the Kremlin’s “gateway to Ukraine”. The hybrid war strategy includes implementation of “soft power” techniques such as civil unrest and mass social turmoil, information propaganda and blackmail of political elites. During the first phase of the conflict that took place in 2014, the objective was to seize power using the “fifth column” and the so-called “political tourists” deployed to the other side of the border. The article also examines how civil resistance against the pro-Russian groups has been unfolding in the area of Kharkiv. Based on the chronological overview of the events, the authors conclude that civil resistance exemplified by the contributions of civil society, non-governmental organizations and individual activists played a crucial role in the events of 2014. Furthermore, the authors argue that civil resistance and social cohesion could be an effective response with regard to national defense and countering hybrid warfare threats.

Abstract. Disaster management aims to reduce catastrophic losses of disasters. Geographic information technologies support disaster management activities for effective and collaborative data management considering the complex nature of disasters. This study with an original conceptual approach aims to develop interoperable geographic data model and analysis tools to manage geographic data sets coming from different sources. For landslide disaster, 39 scenario-based activities were analysed with the required data according to user needs in a cycle of activities at mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery phases. An interoperable geographic data model for disaster management (ADYS), enabling up-to-date exchange of geographic data, was designed, compliant with the standards of ISO/TC211 Geographic Information/Geomatics, Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), and the Turkish National GIS (TUCBS). An open source and free analysis toolbox was developed and tested in the case study of activities such as landslide hazard analysis and a disaster warning system to support the Provincial Disaster Management Centres of Turkey. Open data models and analysis tools make effective activity management and data sharing possible. However, transforming data sets into data exchange formats is laborious.

Despite the attempts of labeling hybrid warfare as a new form of warfare or even as a factor that is changing the nature of war, hybrid warfare is part of a war from the Antiquity to the present day. The essence of hybrid warfare is in parallel use of regular and irregular military forcesand different means of pressure by a power unwilling to openly attack a weaker opponent. Information dimension is analyzed in the cases of hybrid warfare against Croatia (1990-91) and Ukraine (2014). In both cases the key target of hybrid warfare was social cohesion of the attacked countries. In the Croatian case, despite a strong propaganda campaign followed by the direct and indirect use of military force, the attacking side was unable to break social cohesion of the majority of Croatia's population. In the Ukrainian case, the lack of social cohesion has prevented organization of the efficient response to hybrid warfare waged by the Russian Federation. Both cases also indicate the significance of national identity in preserving a society's social cohesion.

<strong> Introduction </strong> In this blog post, we talk about our experience teaching R and Python for geocomputation. The focus of the blog post is on geographic vector data, meaning points, lines, polygons (and their ‘multi’ variants) and the attributes associated with them. Geographic data analysis is a broad topic and in a later post we will cover raster data, meaning gridded data such as satellite images.

A concept of fuzzy three-dimensional Voronoi Diagram is presented for spatial relations analysis of real world three-dimensional geographical data, where it is an extension of well known two-dimensional Voronoi Diagram to three-dimensional representation with uncertain spatial relation information in terms of fuzzy set. It makes possible to analyze quantitatively complex boundaries of geographically intricate areas, to give human friendly fuzzy explanation of determining three-dimensional directions, and to express uncertain spatial relations by precise unified fuzzy description. It is applied to decide spatial direction relations of artificial geographicalmountain data, which includes 8 spatial directions with at most 60 relative direction relations, and it leads to detect threedimensional directions whereas the expression of traditional 4 directions and 12 relative directions indicate two-dimensional directions only. The proposed concept aims to discriminate neighbors’ class relations and spatial-temporal changes of specially appointed objects, and also aims to be a tool to achieve the intellective extraction and analysis of geographical data of a mountainous area located in northeast China.

Hybrid threats represent a very real security challenge for United States military in coming decades. They combine strengths of an irregular fighting force with various capabilities of an advanced state military, and will play an increasingly prominent role in international security issues. What are attributes of a true hybrid threat, how do they function, and how can they be countered before they even emerge? Much of existing literature dealing with hybrid threats focuses on and they are, both in present day and in past. What is needed is a methodological attempt to identify where, and in what capacity, these organizations will emerge over coming decades. This article describes a methodology to more readily identify an emerging hybrid adversary. The methodology examines current understanding of hybrid threats and their capabilities, and identification of three necessary core variables of a hybrid threat organization: maturity, capability, and complex terrain. The sweet spot where these variables overlap is point of maximum tactical, operational, and strategic effectiveness for a hybrid threat. By superimposing these three variables on a possible threat, we can gauge that organization's potential to develop into a true, mature hybrid adversary. We also see exact circumstances that would enable this development, and can consider how to assist or impede that development. Understanding Hybrid Threats There is no consensus definition of hybrid threats--in open press or military lexicon. They are defined in US Army's Training Circular 7-100 as the diverse and dynamic combination of regular forces, irregular forces, and/or criminal elements all unified to achieve mutually benefitting effects. (1) Authors Frank Hoffman, Nathan Freier, John McCuen, and Helmut Habermayer proposed similar definitions for this type of organization. Their definitions of a hybrid threat include ability to engage effectively in multiple forms of war, simultaneously. (2) William Nemeth also compellingly discusses hybrid adversaries and hybrid warfare, demonstrating how armed groups from less-developed societies tend to incorporate more advanced adversaries' technologies and tactics in new ways that are more effective than originally intended. (3) The pitfall for numerous studies related to hybrid threats and hybrid warfare is that they set aperture too wide in identifying who and what a hybrid threat is. It is only natural that every armed force will use any and every means available to it. In many instances, armed force may employ a variety of capabilities while achieving little actual effect from any number of them. For example, an insurgent group may launch cyberattacks, engage in acts of terrorism, or take part in organized criminal activities. This only means they are similar to virtually every other modern insurgent group. Everyone engaged in armed conflict will attempt to conduct cyberattacks, irregular warfare, information warfare, innovative use of off-the-shelf technology, and other spectacular attacks to maximum extent possible. One needs to be cautious in simply defining a hybrid adversary as any that engages in multiple forms of warfare, because this can include just about every type of organization from criminal gangs like MS-13 to German Wehrmacht. If everybody is a hybrid, then nobody is. The true hybrid mix of advanced military capabilities and organizational maturity is normally not commonplace among armed groups around world, nor is it easily attained. Consequently, it is important to understand if we can predict how and when an armed group becomes a fully developed hybrid adversary. A fully developed hybrid adversary will be able to transition between irregular or guerilla war, and highly conventional warfare in company- or larger-sized formations at will. Specifically, as RAND researcher David Johnson writes, a true hybrid adversary will be able to engage opposing military forces effectively at a distance, and force them to fight through an extended engagement area to get into close fight. …

The envisioned R&D Model of Resource Mapping for Livelihood Planning is based on the experience gained in a survey-based research work on resource mapping for livelihood planning, conducted in the backward district of Purulia (West Bengal, India) in 2018-20. The research work identified some parameters and attributes associated in the villagelevel resource mapping work, and highlighted the scope of the application of information technology in the work process through analysis of geo-referenced data – to render an extra edge in real time analysis. The research work produced a combined database having 67 baselevel attributes, containing spatial and non-spatial data of the area of study comprising of 606 mouzas. It was felt that such database, when powered with GIS-enabled search engine and WebGIS infrastructure, may generate huge volume of strategic just-in-time information, which when linked with e-governance mechanism of the government, may help promote livelihood at the village level through optimal utilization of resources. Technological tools like Geographical Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing Data Analysis help us to develop spatially connected databases. Such database when combined with strategic non-spatial data-sets may produce a combined database, which once made up to village level, can provide a tremendous boost in the planning and monitoring of activities of social projects of the governments and NGOs, as well as may provide efficient and quality service to the entrepreneurs by way of providing just-in-time information. In livelihood resource mapping work, criteria analysis of resource mapping data can help in extracting relevant information in super-imposed form from multi-layered datasets, through multiple object-based inter-related queries. Four case studies are illustrated in this paper that offer examples of the ways to generate criteria maps for strategic information (along with its dataset) from combined database of GIS, in response to multi-level queries. Such criteria maps provide information on the existing and other socio-economic conditions of the region. Thousands of such multi-level queries may generate numerous Resource Planning Maps and Participatory Planning Maps, useful for livelihood planning and its implementation. Livelihood planning and its implementation at the grass-root level need collaborative efforts at various levels – both the government and non-government institutions may join hands in the fields of survey works, compilation of combined databases, analysis of the data, generating strategic information for livelihood planning, and most important, in the task of livelihood cluster development works at the grass-root level. A participative planning roadmap is given in the concluding note.

The development and documentation of software for the analysis of geographical data is maturing, and the needs and desires of varying user communities are becoming clearer. Certainly today there are more users in more communities, and in general much more data than before, even though data is more accessible in some countries than in others. Many more users are now meeting geographical data through geographical information systems software (GIS). GIS are general-purpose environments for handling geographical data, and do not assume that the user will need to make predictions or draw inferences from the data, or error propagation in geographical data analysis. Indeed, much of current progress in GIS is in making it easier for users to construct maps at the front end and in providing open and consistent data base support at the back end. Neither of these two areas lie close to the central concerns of statistical data analysts, such as making predictions with associated uncertainties, but can be of great value to them. In meeting and undertaking dialogues with users and developers, it seems both valid and important to attempt to explore some of the assumptions the different communities hold themselves, have about each other, and the tasks they undertake separately and jointly. Some of the points to be made will draw in the ontology discourse in geographical information science (GIScience), which may be helpful in throwing light of different assumptions made by different communities, not just technical/motivational, but also related to the sociology of organizations and of scientific disciplines. The paper3 discusses these issues in general terms, but more specifically touching on tools and methods that may propagate between communities of users, and on difficulties associated with the use of inference in inappropriate settings. In particular, we will present and discuss selected examples of analytical practice that are

Conventional courses in geographical data analysis have major problems of student background, statistical validity, geographical relevance and intellectual inertia. An alternative approach, based upon the methods of data analysis advocated by Tukey, is proposed.

Upper Silesia lies at the crossroads of Germanic and Slavic Europe. A part of the Polish kingdom in the Middle Ages, the territory spent much of the early modern period under Habsburg rule, falling to Prussia in the mid-eighteenth century. Like nearly all of Central Europe at the time, the region was ethnically mixed; the population was comprised mainly of German-and Polish-speakers, who nonetheless considered themselves to be simply Silesian. That is, for much of its history, and even continuing into the present day, Upper Silesians’ identity resided at the local/regional level, and not at the national. In the age of political nationalism and cultural nation-building, however, it seemed that such regional identities might be swept away by the rising tide of the nation. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, the region experienced not one but two intense nation-building projects – one German, one Polish. These initiatives reached their climax on 21 March 1921, when a plebiscitegave Upper Silesians the chance to choose whether they would be Germans or Poles – or, more accurately, whether they would be citizens of the newly reorganized Germany or the newly reconstituted Poland. Ordered by the victorious Allied Powers in the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919, the plebiscite in Upper Silesia was to determine whether the territory – and by extension her nearly 2.3 million inhabitants – would remain German or become a part of Poland. The Treaty gave the nascent German and Polish governments nearly two full years to inundate the region with various forms of propaganda. It is in this context that the two booklets quoted from above were produced.Both were published before the plebiscite (1921 and 1920, respectively), andproduced in the capitals of their respective nations (Warsaw and Berlin). Both authors stressed that the region was ‘naturally’ a part of either Germany or Poland and had been so for centuries. To recognize only the ethnic/historical arguments of these works, however, is to overlook their second, equally important argument – that of the economic and social situations in both nations. In the years before the plebiscite, German and Polish propaganda initiatives highlighted the economic stability of their nations, while labeling the other as poor andweak. This was largely accomplished by images that were highly gendered – a feature of plebiscite propaganda that has been greatly overlooked. While the analysis of the broad variety of visual and textual propagandamaterial used in the plebiscite campaigns, such as posters, caricatures, booklets, pamphlets, leaflets and newspaper articles, is important for our understanding of the overall propaganda project of both the German and Polish governments and nationalist groups, this chapter will focus mainly on the most visible aspect of the propaganda, the posters and leaflets produced in the two years prior to the March 1921 plebiscite. It will analyze the interplay of different rhetorical strategies, ethnic and national, economic and social, as well as cultural, and explore especially the importance of the constructed differences of class and gender in the propaganda. The paper addresses two main questions: First, what iconographic, visual and rhetorical strategies did German and Polish propagandists use to convince Upper Silesians to vote for either Germany or Poland? Second, what role did gender and class play in the propaganda? The approach of this study reflects the recent development in the scholarshipon nation and nationalism, particularly in East Central Europe. Until the early 1980s scholars had mostly interpreted nationalism as a political and social phenomenon of modernity. Since than, however, they increasingly followed the ‘cultural and linguistic turn’, adopted a cultural approach3 and conceptualized the nation as, to use Benedict Anderson’s oft-quoted term, an ‘imagined community’.4 Drawing primarily, though not exclusively, on examples from East Central Europe, the work of Miroslav Hroch stressed the developmental stages of nationalism in smaller nations: first, ‘the period of scholarly interest’; second, ‘the period of patriotic agitation’; and third, the period of ‘the rise of a mass national movement’. He also emphasized the importance of the social basis of nationalism.5

Artificial intelligence is a part of computing that deals with the development of the computer's ability to perform tasks that require a certain level of intelligence (Hrvatska enciklopedija, 2024). Its development also increases the potential for misuse in various areas. Artificial intelligence as a tool that can be used to create very convincing disinformations in communication leads to greater possibilities of manipulating public opinion. This phenomenon is not unknown and is becoming more widespread as the popularity of social networks grows. The spread of disinformation created by artificial intelligence increases the possibility of spreading falsehoods that need to be fought against. In the introductory part, this paper will clarify the purpose of disinformation created by artificial intelligence, furthermore it will provide an overview of selected cases of the dissemination of disinformation in the public in recent history to the present day - from the Homeland War in Croatia, the US war in Iraq until the recently started war between Ukraine and Russia, with the purpose of creating tools for hybrid warfare.In the final part, the paper will deal with the question of whether artificial intelligence, which serves humans to create disinformation and hybrid warfare, can be a weapon to fight against such warfare. Can artificial intelligence be a weapon against itself in the disinformation war?

Geographic data collection, manipulation, analysis and visualization options have experienced substantial improvements during the past several decades, largely spurred by advancements in computing capabilities. While geographers are often credited with identifying and expanding many of the emerging application areas and innovations for the analysis of spatially (and sometimes temporally) referenced data, we are specifically interested in the role of Canadian geographers in the rapidly evolving domain of spatial science. We pose the following provocative question with the intent of not only summarizing the Canadian literature, but also to stimulate an informed discussion: ‘are Canadian geographers developers or users of spatial analytical methods?’ We review the refereed literature from 1980 to 2008 to describe the nature of contributions by Canadian geographers, beginning at about the time of widely accessible computing (1980s). Our summary broadly classifies subdisciplinary contribution areas as being best described as GIS, remote sensing, or spatial statistics, while each contribution area may take the type of algorithm development, advancement and synthesis of theory, or the application of existing methods. We paint a picture of the current contribution landscape and reflect on significant achievements while commenting on some potential weakness that with increased resources and focus might become future realms of advancement.

Troll internet messages, especially those posted on Twitter, have recently been recognised as a very powerful weapon in hybrid warfare. Hence, an important task for the academic community is to provide a tool for identifying internet troll accounts as quickly as possible. At the same time, this tool must be highly accurate so that its employment will not violate people’s rights and affect the freedom of speech. Though such a task can be effectively fulfilled on purely linguistic grounds, as of yet, very little work has been done that could help to explain the discourse-specific features of this type of writing. In this paper, we suggest a quantitative measure for identifying troll messages which is based on taking into account certain sociolinguistic limitations of troll speech, and discuss two algorithms that both require as few as 50 tweets to establish the true nature of the tweets, whether ‘genuine’ or ‘troll-like’.