HYBRID WARFARE: THE ANATOMY OF A CONTESTED CONCEPT

Hybrid warfare has become one of the most discussed forms of threat in recent times. However, there are many different definitions of hybrid warfare. This situation makes the concept of hybrid warfare difficult to understand and all-encompassing. The fact that a concept embedded in the security terminology of states is so ambiguous creates serious problems in the formulation and implementation of defense policies. The primary aim of the article is to present the different forms of conflict labeled as hybrid warfare and to reveal what is generally meant by hybrid warfare today. The main argument of the article is that hybrid warfare has constantly been subjected to “conceptual stretching” and is nowadays generally understood as a method of achieving political objectives by combining military and non-military instruments, while remaining below the threshold of conventional warfare. In the Turkish literature, there are almost no studies on the historical evolution of the concept of hybrid warfare. Therefore, it is hoped that the article will provide original contributions to the literature on hybrid warfare.