This is a first book-long analysis showing how the notion of ‘hybrid warfare’ was used to transform security policies and discourses in an EU/NATO country. Building on current debates in International Political Sociology, Critical Security Studies, and Critical Geopolitics, it provides a novel account of how crisis, geopolitics, uncertainty, and expertise are intertwined in the social construction of threats. Based on extensive and original empirical research of large textual archive and elite interviews in the Czech Republic and Brussels, the book shows how officials, bureaucrats, journalists, activists, and experts all participate in the reshaping of security in a new geopolitical environment. Zooming on the case of Czechia and its specific Central European context, it complements the predominantly Western-centric studies of insecurity with an account of how the liminal position on an East/West boundary influences security politics. As a first study of its kind and scope, it will be of interest to academics and students interested in Central European politics, practices and discourses of hybrid warfare, as well as critical approaches to security and geopolitics.
Author(s): Jakub Eberle, Jan Daniel
Series: Central and Eastern European Perspectives on International Relations
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 237
City: London
Acknowledgements
Contents
About the Authors
Abbreviations
Chapter 1: Introduction: The Problematic Politics of ‘hybrid warfare’
Problematising ‘hybrid warfare’: A Strange and Counter-productive Discourse
‘Hybrid warfare’: A ‘lab leak’ from Military Debates
The Supposed Dangers of HW
… and the Real Problems
Explicating the ‘hybrid warfare’ Discourse in Czechia, 2014–2021
Key Concepts and Arguments
Research Design, Methods, Data
Clarifications
Outline of the Book
References
Chapter 2: Liminal Insecurities: Crises, Geopolitics and the Logic of War
Liminality and Ontological Insecurity
Times of Crises: Czechia in 2008–2013
Maps of Fear: Geopoliticisation and East/West Liminality
Everything Becomes War: Warification and the War/Peace Liminality
Conclusion
References
Chapter 3: Formation: Emergence of the ‘hybrid warfare’ Assemblage in Czechia (2014–2016/17)
Assemblage: Decentred Agency in the Production of (In)security
2014: Initial Shock, NATO’s Entrepreneurship and First Glimpses of Warification
2015: Expansion, Domestic Entrepreneurship and Warification Unbound
Bureaucratic and Military Circles: Shift to Warification
Media and Civil Society: Growing Interest and Arrival of New Actors
Intelligence Community: Getting Public
Migration as an Amplifier
2016: The Assemblage Comes Together
EU, NATO and Growing Transnational Exposure of HW
Civil Society: Rise of the European Values Think Tank
Official Authorisation: Finalisation of the National Security Audit
2016/2017: Contesting CTHH and Setting the Main Lines of the HW Debate
Doing the Assembling: Core Actors and Connections
European Values Think Tank
Think Tanks and Masaryk University
Journalists
Security Bureaucrats
Conclusion
References
Chapter 4: Politicisation, Institutionalisation, Internationalisation: The Czech ‘hybrid warfare’ Assemblage in 2017–2021
Elections, Protests, Epidemics: Normalisation of HW and Branching of the Assemblage
Hopes, Frustrations and ‘Disinformation’: The Elections of 2017 and 2018
Hybrid War and Czech Politics: From the Parliamentary Floor to a Prague Square
Covid-19: From a Hybrid Threat to a Social Problem
The Vrbětice Attack: Hybrid Warfare or State Terrorism?
The Institutionalisation of the Assemblage and Specialisation of Its Members
State Institutions
Civil Society
Internationalisation of the HW Assemblage
Conclusion
References
Chapter 5: Differentiation: Three Main Narratives of ‘hybrid warfare’
Defence Narrative: Protecting the State from External Threats
Counterinfluence Narrative: Subversive Agents Within the Society
Education Narrative: Fostering Responsible Individuals
Conclusion
References
Chapter 6: Boundaries: Expertise, Authority and Contestation in the Czech ‘hybrid warfare’ Debate
Assemblage, Expertise and Its Boundaries
Intelligence Expertise and History Education
(Counter)Intelligence Expertise and the HW Threat in the BIS Annual Reports
Setting the Boundaries of BIS Authority: The Supposedly Pro-Soviet History Education
Journalistic Expertise and the Ricin Affair
Journalistic Expertise and HW
Ricin Affair and the Limits of Journalistic HW Expertise
Academic Criticism: Limits to Warification and the Possibility to Think HW Differently
And Against the Trolls Have Risen the Elves …
Conclusion
References
Chapter 7: Conclusion: Reclaiming Politics from the Logic of War
Dismantling ‘hybrid warfare’
Thinking Different Politics
Slowness as De-escalation
Vulnerability as We-ness
Rethinking Democratic Conflict
References
List of Interviews
Index
