The Art of Achieving Political Goals without Use of Force: War by Non-Military Means

Abstract

Nowadays, the boundaries between war and peace are increasingly blurred. Over the past few years we can observe the appearance of new terms in the field of international relations – ‘hybrid war,’ ‘hybrid conflicts’ or ‘hybrid threats.’ Despite the absence of a generally recognized definition of the concept, its characteristics are close to the definition of terrorism. Some security analysts indicate this type of conflict as a war, combining conventional methods with guerrilla, cyber and information warfare techniques (media and Internet) as well as with non-military actions, which run contrary to international law and aim to achieve specific policy goals.