Conceptualization of the Notion of «Hybrid Warfare» in Socio-Philosophical Research

Abstract

The article attempts to conceptualize the notion of “hybrid warfare”, popular in modern political science and philosophy, through analyzing the theories of Frank Hoffman, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, and Carl Schmitt. In response to the debates over the appropriateness of using the term “hybrid warfare” and attempts to attribute the quality of “hybridity” to all wars in the history of mankind, the author suggests legitimizing the concept of “hybrid warfare” in relation to the military conflicts of our age. The author proposes that the following elements give the war the quality of hybridity: asymmetry in the use of military and information attacks, transition of warfare from a battlefield to the symbolic order and the large scale of participation of network guerrillas.

Keywords

• hybrid warfare
• conventional warfare
• postmodernity
• conceptualization
• totality
• information attack
• network guerilla