Hybrid Threats and AI: A New Era of Warfare

Modern conflict has evolved beyond traditional warfare, now encompassing cyber attacks, disinformation campaigns, election interference, and economic coercion. Dr. Teija Tiilikainen, director of the European Center of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (Hybrid CoE), discusses these hybrid security threats in an interview on NatSec Tech, a podcast by the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP) that explores emerging technology and national security. Hybrid threats are defined as a mix of tools used against democracies to undermine trust in government, often employed by authoritarian regimes. These threats are designed to surprise and exploit vulnerabilities, spanning cyber operations, information warfare, and attacks on critical infrastructure. Artificial intelligence (AI) amplifies these dangers, enabling threat actors to manipulate perceptions and blur the lines between real and AI-generated actors. Tiilikainen highlights the information space as particularly potent, citing Russian disinformation in the Ukraine war as an example. Key state actors include Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, who often use proxies to obscure attribution. Countermeasures involve building societal resilience, international sanctions, public naming of culprits, and education, as seen in Nordic and Baltic countries. The private sector also plays a role, given its ownership of critical infrastructure. Hybrid threats are existential for democracies, and while progress is being made, more preparation is needed. Visit scsp.ai to learn more.