Special issue: The evolving threat of hybrid war

The current sense of “hybrid war,” was introduced in 2005, when James N. Mattis, now the US defense secretary, and National Defense University researcher Frank Hoffman called it “a combination of novel approaches—a merger of different modes and means of war.” Since then, the use of hybrid warfare techniques has expanded dramatically, from Iran’s blend of military and paramilitary tools to China’s use of a “gray zone” approach in the areas close to its coast, and to the “netwars” launched by anonymous states and non-state actors, alike.

In this issue, top experts look at the hybridized strategies of Russia, China, and Iran and, more generally, at the militarization of the Internet that seems to foreshadow a continued increase in global conflict just below the level of full war.

Here’s what you need to know:

Special issue: How dangerous is hybrid war?

Introduction: The evolving threat of hybrid warfare
John Mecklin
Free-access article

“Netwar”: The unwelcome militarization of the Internet has arrived
Jonathan Zittrain
Free-access article

Thinking clearly about China’s layered Indo-Pacific strategy
Zack Cooper and Andrew Shearer

How Iran’s hybrid-war tactics help and hurt it
Melissa G. Dalton

Hybrid war: Russian contemporary political warfare
Christopher S. Chivvis

Other Features

Non-strategic nuclear weapons in Russia’s evolving military doctrine
Katarzyna Zysk

Safeguards and the NPT: Where our current problems began
Leonard Weiss

Forty years of impasse: The United States, Japan, and the plutonium problem
Masafumi Takubo and Frank von Hippel
Free-access article

Scientific advocacy: a tool for assessing the risks of engagement
Gavin A. Schmidt and Simon D. Donner

Nuclear Notebook

Worldwide deployments of nuclear weapons, 2017
Hans M. Kristensen and Robert S. Norris
Free-access article

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