Yoko Hirose
Japan's defense white paper this year strongly advocated for strengthening responses to "hybrid warfare," along with readiness for China's military coercion and gray zone situations. Hybrid warfare refers to modern warfare that combines regular warfare using military and irregular warfare that is not limited to military activities.
The irregular warfare is also called "invisible war," and it aims to collapse the society and institutions of the adversary from the inside, covering a wide range of tactics, including cyberattacks, information warfare, political threats, economic pressure, and the use of proxy forces. Especially in democratic countries, directly attacking weak foundations such as elections and speech space can cause considerable damage.
'Invisible War'
Russia is at the forefront of this hybrid warfare. During the war in Ukraine, especially since 2023, the number of Russian attacks in the West has increased, and their scope has expanded, and their quality has become extremely sophisticated and vicious. According to an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a U.S. think tank, the most prominent hybrid methods are election interference and information campaigns, attacks on critical infrastructure, including cutting submarine cables and sabotaging global positioning systems (GPS) for flights, violent acts including sabotage and terrorism, and "weaponization of refugees and migrants," which intentionally flood refugees and migrants to other countries.
Let's pay attention to information warfare and election interference, which account for the largest proportion. Now, Russia has gone beyond simply spreading disinformation and is also using artificial intelligence (AI) to engage in "doppelganger campaigns" of information manipulation in many Western countries.
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