Hybrid Warfare: International Law Dimension

Abstract

In the last three years, the term “hybrid warfare” is being actively applied in political context. However, legal aspects of this phenomenon remain insufficiently studied. As a result, there is a dangerous situation when the term reflecting real tendencies in the sphere of military and informational policy of the states gradually takes root into research terminology, without any appropriate legal content yet. Nowadays there is a serious discussion about the possibility of using this term in a legal context and about the opportunities of its further inclusion into international legal terminology. The phenomenon of “hybrid warfare” shows sharp increase of the importance of informational component in international relations. It also represents the logical continuation of practical implementation of the concept of “color revolutions” and “Arab springs” which mainly deal with non-military impact on the opponent. The author believes that the prospects of inclusion of the term “hybrid warfare” in terminology of international law are very nebulous, taking into account that there have been legal term “state terrorism” for more than three decades, with a very similar sense, which has not yet become a subject of international legal regulation in the specialized convention. Moreover, the fact that “hybrid warfare” became a journalistic cliche for designation of actions of the states are not fitting into a framework of a traditional military paradigm, has extremely bad effect on the prospects of legal regulation of this phenomenon. Besides, the information and communication sphere represents too difficult subject of legal regulation due to its dynamism. The author points out the most significant international legal issues arising from legal connotation of the term “hybrid warfare”, including the problem of conducting direct analogies between the classical military categories and the categories of “hybrid war”. In this context, the problem is whether cyber-attacks can be considered as a basis for the state self-defense, as well as whether actions of states during “hybrid war” can be considered as the basis for the international responsibility of states.