We Need to Talk About Hybrid

Hybrid warfare has been an important topic in much of Western national security discourse in the past five years, albeit with many different labels. The concept is problematic in that it can be applied to a range of activities that, while coercive, might have been considered part of routine statecraft and has been applied to a range of contexts where the actual activities being described are quite different. In this article, Ewan Lawson discusses how the concept of hybrid warfare is important for policymakers as it reinforces the idea that conflict and competition should not be seen through a simple peace-war dichotomy. It also highlights the importance of a whole-of-government response and the risk of seeing it through a purely military prism.