Russian hybrid warfare in Georgia and Ukraine

SHEVCHUK, Zinaida. Russian hybrid warfare in Georgia and Ukraine. In ISA's 57th Annual Convention. 2016.

Basic information

• Original name: Russian hybrid warfare in Georgia and Ukraine
• Authors: SHEVCHUK, Zinaida.
• Edition: ISA's 57th Annual Convention, 2016.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Field of Study: 50601 Political science
• Country of publisher: United States of America
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• Organization unit: Faculty of Social Studies

Abstract

One of the long-term goals of Russian Federation is to keep Post-Soviet countries under its control as a satellite states and restrict the penetration of Western influence. Russia’s operationalization of the Hybrid Warfare has demonstrated that the ancient Soviet art of reflexive control can set a dangerous pattern for security architecture in the whole post-Soviet region. This manuscript examines Russian actions in Russian-Georgian armed conflict in 2008 and Ukrainian crisis since 2014. The in depth analyses of hybrid warfare includes combination of multiple conventional and unconventional tools, such as regular military forces, special and irregular forces, support of local unrest, “weaponization of information” and propaganda, diplomacy, cyber attacks and economic warfare. The aim of this research is to demonstrate evaluation of hybrid warfare by comparing these tools in light of recent conflicts in Russia's neighbourhood. The findings of this study contributes to the evaluation of the concept on the theoretical level, which could be transformed into policy recommendations to the EU and NATO.