| ID | 179099 |
| Title Proper | Towards a typology of non-state actors in ‘hybrid warfare |
| Other Title Information | proxy, auxiliary, surrogate and affiliated forces |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Rauta, Vladimir |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | This article presents a typology of armed non-state actors in hybrid warfare: proxy, auxiliary, surrogate and affiliated forces. By focusing on the kinetic domain of hybrid warfare, the article offers a corrective to a debate that has so far ignored variation in roles and functions of non-state actors and their relationships with states and their regular forces. As a denominator, ‘hybrid’ identifies a combination of battlespaces, types of operations—military or non-kinetic—and a blurring of actors with the scope of achieving strategic objectives by creating exploitable ambiguity. However, there has been a disproportionate focus on what hybrid war supposedly combines across battlespaces and domains (socio-political, economic, informational), at the expense of who and how. Using the Ukrainian crisis as a theory-building exercise, the article suggests a four-category schema that identifies non-state actor functions as a tool to better represent the complex franchise of violence that is found nested next to non-military operations in hybrid activity. In so doing, the article speaks to a call for better conceptualization the role of non-state violent actors in civil war, in general, and in hybrid warfare, in particular. |
| `In' analytical Note | Cambridge Review of International Affairs Vol. 33, No.6; Dec 2020: p. 868-887 |
| Journal Source | Cambridge Review of International Affairs Vol: 33 No 6 |
| Key Words | Non-State Actors ; Hybrid Warfare |