Hybrid Threats
“The Russian leadership’s ability to achieve its goals — regime security and great power status through weakening the EU and NATO — comes from its power of destruction rather than its power of attraction.”
Hybrid threats blur the line between war and peace. Rivals sabotage undersea cables and stage airspace incursions. They launch cyberattacks, meddle in elections, and spread disinformation. They also run espionage networks and carry out assassinations on Western soil. These moves pressure open societies but stay below the line of open war. This hub tracks the gray-zone warfare aimed at Europe and North America. Airspace incursions into NATO skies are a growing worry. Baltic Sea security has become a front line for undersea cables and pipelines. Critical infrastructure attacks target power, water, and transport. Espionage, sabotage, and assassinations extend the same playbook. Russian hybrid warfare fuses cyber, information, and economic tools. This hub follows Russian hybrid warfare and how the Kremlin probes Western nerve. Critical infrastructure attacks test how fast states can respond. Baltic Sea security and airspace incursions sit at the center of the alliance’s risks. Fellows and analysts show how governments can spot and deter gray-zone warfare, from espionage and sabotage to assassinations. Explore analysis and commentary on hybrid threats, from Baltic Sea security to the defense of daily life.
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July 10, 2019
The Vanishing Act
Latvia voted to demolish a WWII memorial. Or did they?
March 7, 2019
Nord Stream 2: Myth vs. Fact
Five Nord Stream 2 arguments that are demonstrably false.
December 6, 2018
Ukraine’s Achievements
Taking stock of Ukraine's achievements amidst Russia's aggression.
November 19, 2018
Assessing the Threat
The Kremlin did not send tanks to the Interpol headquarters in Lyon to encourage the international police organization to use its “Red Notices” to harass the critics of the regime in Moscow. Russia has not occupied the “sunny places for shady people”—the offshore jurisdictions that are so important in international money-laundering. It did not threaten […]
November 6, 2018
Hybrid Transactions
Democracy and the rule of law seem solid until greed gets in the way. That is the story of Danske Bank, a reputable Danish bank, whose Estonian branch handled €200bn (about $227bn) in suspicious transactions from 10,000 non-resident customers between 2007 and 2015. The chief executive, Thomas Borgen, has resigned, Criminal investigations are underway in Denmark, Estonia, the […]
September 19, 2018
Russia’s Defeats
An integral part of Russia’s state propaganda is to create an aura of invincibility and inevitability in its foreign policy. This is reminiscent of claims about the irresistible success of world communism in a previous era. But reality is less sanguine, as the Kremlin’s covert war against the West is experiencing an escalating number of […]
September 7, 2018
Russia’s Primary Targets
External assertiveness often serves as an effective diversionary maneuver to dampen domestic turmoil by acting on the deception that Russia is under threat. Moscow’s tools of aggression against neighboring states rely on stealth and surprise. This was most evident during the attack on Ukraine in 2014 and the takeover of the Crimean peninsula. Russia’s rulers […]
August 28, 2018
Question More
The “anti-vax” movement, which claims that vaccines are a commercial conspiracy and cause autism, is almost non-existent in Russia: 98% of children there receive the measles jab. But that has not stopped the Kremlin’s disinformation machine from stoking the American medical-culture wars over immunization. The most controversial part of this stunt was promoting spurious arguments […]
August 14, 2018
In The Kremlin’s Shadow
Ankara may not like what it finds in the Kremlin’s shadow. Turkey will look for new friends and allies if the Trump administration mistreats it. That was Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s message in the New York Times on August 10th. The implied threat by the Turkish president was closer ties with the Kremlin, whose rhetoric depicts a sunny world of […]