This policy brief by Christopher Case from October 2025 explores the difficulties Western audiences and analysts face in comprehending hybrid warfare. It clarifies that hybrid warfare is not a novel concept but rather an evolution of using a full spectrum of instruments—political, military, economic, informational—for strategic advantage. The piece traces the modern term’s origin to 2007 but emphasizes that the methods date back centuries, particularly used by Russia. The article outlines core components such as reflexive control, deep operations, and the escalation ladder across vertical, horizontal, and lateral dimensions. It notes the challenge Western observers face due to hybrid warfare’s ambiguity, misattribution risks, and the wide range of grey zone activities blending conflict and peacetime. Russia’s employment of masked influence, misinformation, sabotage, and covert overt hybrid actions aims to manipulate decision-making, create distrust, and exploit vulnerabilities. The 2014 invasion of Crimea is cited as a pivotal event illustrating Russia’s hybrid methods in practice. The author, a senior intelligence analyst at NATO SHAPE with extensive experience in strategic and tactical analysis, concludes that understanding these layered, overlapping tactics is essential as Russia optimizes hybrid warfare to seek advantage and evade effective countermeasures.
Category: Military & Paramilitary Operations
Subcategory: Unconventional / Paramilitary
Incident Type: Use of ‘little green men’ (unmarked soldiers)
Country: Russia
Source report: www.napforum.org/policy-br…
