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Course

“HYBRID CONFLICTS AS A THREAT TO SECURITY SYSTEMS”

Academic year 2022-2023

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Jean Monnet Module Erasmus+

“Civil society in conflict resolution process:

the EU experience for Ukraine”

101084973 — EURoCoRP — ERASMUS-JMO-2022-HEI-TCH-RSCH

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HYBRID CONFLICTS AS A THREAT TO SECURITY SYSTEMS

Course Content (1)

Topic 1: Introduction to the course “Hybrid conflicts as a threat to security systems”.

Topic 2: Current research on hybrid conflicts: the experience of the EU for Ukraine.

Topic 3: EU regulatory and legal support in the field of security.

Topic 4: The role of EU institutions in ensuring the 16th and 17th Sustainable Development Goals.

Topic 5: Institutional principles of counteracting hybrid conflicts in the EU and Ukraine.

Topic 6: Activities of The European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats.

Topic 7: Universal and regional systems of collective security in counteracting hybrid conflicts.

Topic 8: Hybrid threats as an object of analysis in the social sciences.

Topic 9: Hybrid political conflict as an object of study and research.

Topic 10: Hybrid political conflict: origin, forms, causes, driving forces, specifics.

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HYBRID CONFLICTS AS A THREAT TO SECURITY SYSTEMS

Course Content (2)

Topic 11: Cycles of hybrid political conflict.

Topic 12: Hybrid war: types of weapons and ways to start a war.

Topic 13: Hybrid peace as a category in conflict studies.

Topic 14: Security asymmetry in the era of globalization.

Topic 15: Problems of deterrence of hybrid conflicts: EU practices.

Topic 16: Prevention as a way to counter hybrid conflicts.

Topic 17: Non-traditional threats and modern security systems.

Topic 18: OSCE cooperation with Ukraine in shaping the security system.

Topic 19: Reforming the security sector in the context of the spread of hybrid threats: the EU experience for Ukraine.

Topic 20: The role of the EU in resolving the current situation in Ukraine: humanitarian aid, investment support, and EU sanctions policy.

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Topic 14: Security asymmetry in the era of globalization.

  • Globalization of the security system.
  • Security opportunities in a globalized world.
  • Asymmetry and strength advantage.
  • Security asymmetry and asymmetric conflict.
  • The paradox of asymmetry: resolution, course, and end of the conflict.

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Globalization

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Asymmetry

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Globalization of the security system

The nature of war is being altered by technological, social, and cultural advances. At the same time, it has been observed that warfare is beginning to be dominated by unconventional tactics. War and warfare have been transformed from state centricity to a condition where the reason of state no longer drives belligerency (Creveld, 1991)

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Security opportunities in a globalized world

Types of potential asymmetric threats:

Nuclear

Chemical

Biological

Information operations

Operational concepts

Terrorism

(Kenneth McKenzie, 2000)

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Asymmetry and strength advantage

A threat (whatever its nature may be) can neither be labeled as symmetric, nor asymmetric if it is observed in isolation from the potential source. The term asymmetric threat itself is useless since a threat assumes its asymmetric attribute only by virtue of the features of its source. The source or bearer of a threat, the means he uses, the strategy and tactics he applies, and the armed confrontation he embarks on can be asymmetric, not the threat itself (Petener, p. 37)

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Security asymmetry and asymmetric conflict

  • Asymmetry is any form of threat for which state, coalition, or allied structures are not prepared culturally, structurally, intellectually, or from the point of view of legislation, administration, or regulation, so they cannot react immediately, effectively, and strongly.
  • Asymmetric warfare is a small war or a conflict of decreased intensity, in which countries or societies are threatened by state or non-state actors, such as terrorist groups, freedom fighters, and computer hackers, who attack in unconventional ways.
  • An asymmetric conflict is a type of conflict in which a country and its armed forces have to confront an opponent whose objectives, organization, means of fighting, and methods of operating fall outside the conventional meaning of war.
  • Asymmetric threats are defined as “a threat emanating from the potential use of dissimilar means or methods to circumvent or negate an opponent’s strengths while exploiting its weaknesses to obtain a disproportionate result” (North Atlantic Treaty Organization).
  • Hybridization may concern both a belligerent (a state, a non-state actor, or an irregular armed group) and the area of the conflict (especially a battlefield), its genesis, and nature (the ecosystem of the conflict).

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The paradox of asymmetry: resolution, course, and end of the conflict

Unconventional methods:

  1. attacks on infrastructure in a given country or its citizens using conventional means, e.g. classic explosives, or unconventional means, e.g. ABC weapons;
  2. illegal and harmful (to the economy and infrastructure) activities in cyberspace;
  3. unfavorable propaganda campaigns in the media, which are intended to tarnish the image of the attacked country at the international level;
  4. disruption of the economic situation in a given country

(Posłuszna, 2016)

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Sources

  • How the Weak Win Wars: A Theory of Asymmetric Conflict (2001) / Ivan Arreguín-Toft, International Security, Vol. 26, #1, pp. 93-128
  • Leech J. Asymmetries of Conflict: War Without Death. London: Frank Cass, 2002. 220 p.
  • Asymmetries on https://www.un.org/en/
  • Impact of globalization on social development: report of the Secretary-General (2000) / UN. URL: https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/411013?ln=en
  • Asymmetric Warfare – Not every war has to end? / Zrinko Petener. URL: https://securityanddefence.pl/Asymmetric-Warfare-nNot-every-war-has-to-end-,105400,0,2.html
  • The specific nature of asymmetric conflicts (2020) / Małgorzata Kuć, Teka Komisji Prawniczej PAN Oddział w Lublinie, t. XIII, nr 2, s. 375-381
  • Asymmetric Warfare: A State vs Non-State Conflict / Ajey Lele. URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2574274

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Jean Monnet Actions

Useful links

EURoCoRP

Ostroh Academy, NU

European Commission

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�Thank you for attention!

Prof. in charge – Kateryna Yakunina, PhD

Co-Lecturer - Sergii Ishchuk, Doc. Sci.

Co-Lecturer - Tetiana Sydoruk, Doc. Sci.

Co-Lecturer - Dmytro Shevchuk, Doc. Sci.

Co-Lecturer - Olena Shershnova, PhD

The National University of Ostroh Academy

https://www.oa.edu.ua/

https://eurocorp.oa.edu.ua/