Hybrid warfare has been an integral part of the historical landscape since the ancient world, but only recently have analysts – incorrectly – categorised these conflicts as unique. Great powers throughout history have confronted opponents who used a combination of regular and irregular forces to negate the advantage of the great powers' superior conventional military strength. As this study shows, hybrid wars are labour-intensive and long-term affairs; they are difficult struggles that defy the domestic logic of opinion polls and election cycles. Hybrid wars are also the most likely conflicts of the twenty-first century, as competitors use hybrid forces to wear down America's military capabilities in extended campaigns of exhaustion. Nine historical examples of hybrid warfare, from ancient Rome to the modern world, provide readers with context by clarifying the various aspects of conflicts and examining how great powers have dealt with them in the past.
• Nine examples of hybrid war from the ancient world to the present • Introductory and concluding essays frame and analyse the special problems that hybrid war presents to great powers • Demonstrates the importance of understanding hybrid warfare for today's policy makers and military leaders
Contents
Introduction: 1. Hybrid warfare in history Peter R. Mansoor; 2. Conquering Germania: a province too far James Lacey; 3. Keeping the Irish down and the Spanish out: English strategies of submission in Ireland, 1594–1603 Wayne E. Lee; 4. The American revolution: hybrid war in America's past Williamson Murray; 5. That accursed Spanish war: the Peninsular War, 1807–14 Richard Hart Sinnreich; 6. The union's counter-guerrilla war, 1861–5 Daniel E. Sutherland; 7. Fighting 'this nation of liars to the very end': the German army in the Franco–Prussian War, 1870–1 Marcus Jones; 8. Small wars and great games: the British empire and hybrid warfare, 1700–1970 John Ferris; 9. An unexpected encounter with hybrid warfare: the Japanese experience in north China, 1937–45 Noboru Yamaguchi; 10. Hybrid war in Vietnam Karl Lowe; Conclusion: 11. What the past suggests Williamson Murray.
Review
'… highly readable, cohesively organized, and enthusiastically recommended as an invaluable guide for understanding how previous antagonists have sought advantage with strategic combinations. It is suitable for serious students of military history, analysts of contemporary conflict, and professionals at the command and general staff college level.' Small Wars Journal
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