Hybrid Warfare
Fighting Complex Opponents from the Ancient World to the Present

31st Aug 2014 by Robbo

With the advent of the atomic bomb, pundits predicted that war had changed forever. The intervening years proved them wrong. Since the United States became embroiled in Iraq and Afghanistan in the first decade of the 21st Century, a new breed of analysts have now posited the emergence of a new type of war - with the appellation of ‘hybrid warfare.‘ In this small volume, the editors show that far from being an emerging form of conflict, hybrid warfare - the buzz phrase doing the rounds of the Pentagon - has existed for centuries, and that a failure to understand its character, complexity and, importantly, the nature of the societies waging it, has resulted in either defeat, or falling far short of the expectations originally intended. Those who have been successful, on the other hand, have left on long legacy of ill-feeling, and often hatred, amongst the conquered peoples. Hybrid warfare is defined as a conflict in which a belligerent employs both conventional and unconventional forces, such as irregulars, partisans, and guerrillas, and while not new, it presents Western armies with an increasingly difficult problem, should they become involved in one, as the boundaries of war become blurred. In nine essays ranging from the 1st Century AD to the American defeat in Vietnam, each written by a different historian, we are presented with a wide spectrum of such wars, across four continents and Ireland. Interesting though they are, in this reviewer’s opinion the opening essay on the Romans in Germania draws a long bow in placing the conflict in the hybrid warfare basket, and the example of Tyrone’s Rebellion 1594-1603, with a minor Spanish intervention, is more an example of a nascent hybrid war that was snuffed out before it could take hold. The remainder, however, provide fascinating studies of the brutality, complexity, and enormous difficulties confronting conventional forces fighting a ‘hybrid’ enemy. Much of the book addresses the British and American experience. Four essays describe Britain’s efforts, both in combatting hybrid forces successfully and unsuccessfully, and employing them to defeat an opponent. John Ferris’s ‘Small Wars and Great Games: The British Empire and Hybrid Warfare, 1700 - 1970’ covers a broad canvas, and concludes that overall the British have been remarkably successful at conducting and combatting this form of war. Three essays address the American experience - successfully conducting one during the American Revolution, and two of combatting it: successfully during the Civil War, and unsuccessfully in Vietnam. Rounding out the survey, are two fine essays on the Franco-Prussian War and the Second Sino- Japanese War. All are well written, informative studies, and each bring interesting perspectives to the subject. Together they provide a sound basis in understanding, or least attempting to understand the hybrid form of war, but as they clearly show, it is not a new transition confined to the first decade of the 21st Century. Williamson Murray’s ‘Conclusion’ draws together the threads of these studies, pulling out trends from a complex weave of factors that mark the nature of hybrid warfare. As with all his works, Murray’s perceptive and instructive writing eschews the theoretical, and esoteric approach, but is firmly rooted in the historical record, and the realities of past experience. One cannot but feel that Western societies, with their preference for quick wars, and steadily waning support for those that drag on, will increasingly fail to succeed in future hybrid wars. They are costly in resources, money and time, a point the British quickly recognised during the American Revolution, and hence concluded peace with the recalcitrant colonists. There is much to be learned from this fine book. Perhaps the biggest lesson, Murray concludes, is: ‘Do not fight a hybrid war unless the most fundamental interests of the state are at stake.‘ It is a most useful contribution to the study of war in its most difficult form.

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