Understanding Hybrid Warfare

The use of proxies to conduct military operations, targeted economic disruption, overt military exercises in a neighbouring state, and the use of diplomats to limit international responses. All features of Russia's intervention in Ukraine... and US interference in Nicaragua...

Understanding Hybrid Warfare: Navigating the smoke and mirrors of international security reveals the realpolitik behind the noise of modern security and defence activities.

What is a freedom of navigation patrol? Are Russia and China challenging the international rule of law? How significant is it that space is being claimed as a new military domain? When is a state considered to have a 'robust understanding' of the risks it is exposed to?

From exploring the structures of the international order to showing how these same structures are exploited to the advantage of states, groups and political figures, David McFarland considers domains of competition and examples of hybrid activity to expose what is really happening in the world and where we should be looking to truly understand Hybrid Warfare.

A must read for anyone, professional or layperson, interested in international relations in the 21st century.

David McFarland has been a military intelligence operator, an operational intelligence instructor at the UK's Defence School of Intelligence, a diplomat and an Expert on Mission for the United Nations. He was awarded an MBE in 2016.