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Resilience against Hybrid Interference through Cooperation and Unity

Ministry of Defence & Armed Forces of the Czech Republic

14.10.2022
Author: SOPS MO in cooperation with Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of the Interior

Hybrid interference is a complex issue that calls for a joint and strong response. That was the key takeaway from the discussions at the conference named Strengthening Resilience and Countering Hybrid Interference. As part of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union, three Ministries - the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Foreign Affairs - networked subject matter experts to spur the discussion on the rise of hybrid interference in Europe and appropriate joint course of action to face those activities. Experts from the government, academia and the private sector from both EU and non-EU countries met in the National Museum and the Wallenstein Palace in Prague on October 10-11th, 2022.

Democratic values targeted by hybrid interference

Given the fundamental aggravation of the security environment also induced by the Russian aggression against Ukraine, European countries are increasingly faced by hybrid interference. "The advent of new domains of operation and modern technologies has brought new challenges and vulnerabilities, further increasing the complexity of the threats. Our adversaries now try to exploit our weaknesses at every turn. That is why we need to continue developing and improving our capabilities to counter hybrid interference. We must do this at home, at the EU and NATO level, and with our partners," First Deputy Minister of Defence František Šulc said on the conference opening. Chairman of the Czech Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Security Pavel Fischer underscored in his opening address that our competitors do not care about our institutions, founding principles or about our treaties and that our key mission in this regard is to abide by the Constitution and our values. Chairman of the Senate Miloš Vystrčil, who underscored in his remarks that our competitors often seek to question or revert our system of values. "In order to for us to prosper, we first have to observe our values. We have to defend freedom and democracy. If we do so, economic prosperity will also come," Chairman Vystrčil added.

EU strengthening resilience with specific tools

The conference comprised several discussion panels. In the first panel, the participants debated the EU Hybrid Toolbox designed for the Member States to respond to hybrid campaigns in a coordinated fashion. While countering hybrid activities primarily remains the national prerogative, the European Union can be largely instrumental in facing hybrid interference. Through common understanding based also on sharing experience, and joint approach to tackle this potentially highly malicious phenomenon, we are in a better position to identify and eliminate our weak points. The panellists primarily highlighted the complexity of the issue and agreed that hybrid activities solicit a comprehensive reaction across all domains of the society. In order to achieve that, it is critical to strengthen situational awareness, resilience of persons, entities, economies and critical infrastructures. At the same time, it is essential to build tools enabling us to foresee, analyse, early detect and adequately respond to hybrid activities, as a result of which the European Union will become more secure and more resilient.

The second panel was dedicated to the EU's cooperation with some Eastern Partnership countries. The representatives of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia discussed their experience with a frequent employment of hybrid tactics by Russia jeopardising their stability, territorial integrity, democratic processes and Euro Atlantic orientation.

Russia has performed military and non-military practices inside and outside the region on a sustained basis to avert the aspirations of some Eastern Partnership countries in terms of approximation or accession to the EU and NATO. Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova as well as other countries in the East are faced with frequent cyber attacks and disinformation campaigns designed to support false narratives by Russia, justify any type of Russian intervention and demonise western partners.

The panel also addressed tools for countering those activities and possible assistance by the EU. Same like the EU, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia are built on the values of freedom and democracy. The panellists concurred that a strong and enduring support by the EU and NATO, as well as a close cooperation and progressive integration in appropriate areas, was necessary for those countries to maintain their western orientation.

Building on the lessons learnt

The third panel saw the debaters focus on practical manifestations of hybrid interference. Specialists from the Czech and Slovak government and from among the general public presented case studies of how hybrid interference influences internal security and the counter hybrid tools employed for its elimination.

There is a variety of instruments that can be used to counter hybrid interference, both legislation and non-legislation ones. The effectiveness of those tools is greatly strengthened through coordination among various actors on national level as well as international cooperation, with both state and non-state entities.

A successful fight against hybrid interference in any shape or form is preconditioned on a thorough situational awareness and detailed mapping of its originators and its impacts (e.g. through vulnerability audits and public opinion polls). Given the deliberately covert nature of hybrid interference, it is essential not to underestimate the potential of the narratives that deliberately divide societies and to invest more resources into enhancing media literacy and strengthening strategic communication.

Different options, same goal

The final part of the conference covered the EU-NATO cooperation on strengthening the resilience of the Euro-Atlantic Area. The speakers concluded that it is the difference of the two organisations that enables them to complement and mutually reinforce their roles. Both the European Union and NATO are faced with the same hybrid activities by the same opponents. Given the different focus and powers in the civilian and military domain, both of the two organisations have available various instruments that can be employed to counter hybrid interference. The goals of the two organisations are nevertheless the same: protection of territorial integrity of their member nations and their democratic institutions. The speakers also discussed concrete examples of strengthening cooperation between the EU and NATO. That primarily involves intensive common training exercises on regular basis, joint political declarations and deepening of information sharing.

"Resilience has become the central topic of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union from energy infrastructure through democratic institutions to the media. We planned that we would learn to strengthen it in various dimensions with our partners, but it is obvious at least from 2014 that Ukraine and Ukrainians have been demonstrating resilience for us in practice. Resilience builds on unity of the whole society," Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for European Issues Jaroslav Kurfürst concluded the conference.