Hybrid Warfare and US Geostrategy
A Conversation with Andrew Korybko. Global Research News Hour Episode 155
“Once the US has identified its target, it begins searching for the structural vulnerabilities that it will exploit in the coming Hybrid War. Contextually, these aren’t physical objects to be sabotaged such as power plants and roads … but socio-political characteristics that are meant to be manipulated in order to attractively emphasize a certain demographic’s “separateness” from the existing national fabric and thus ‘legitimize’ their forthcoming foreign-managed revolt against the authorities.” -Andrew Korybko [1]
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Length (59:26)
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This isn’t your daddy’s vision for military strategy.
Military operations, for good or for ill, are typically imagined as involving uniformed State actors engaged in violence with the aim of overthrowing a target government.
The aggression by NATO countries against Yugoslavia in 1999, or Afghanistan 15 years ago this month, or the invasion of Iraq in 2003, or the ousting of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 all seem to conform to this portrait of modern warfare.
More astute students of history might also recall engagements under-written by covert mechanisms, such as the CIA instigated coups in Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954) and Chile (1973).
There is however a new form of military engagement on the world stage, and is principally practiced by the United States. It is called Hybrid Warfare.
Andrew Korybko is an American commentator based in Moscow who has written a book and several authoritative articles on this new brand of warfare. Hybrid warfare, as he explains it, involves two pillars. The first is a “coloured revolution” or soft coup triggered by external sources instigating anti-government sentiment within the framework identity politics. The second is unconventional warfare, involving non-state actors executing violence designed to generate chaos and disorder and keep authorities off-balance and vulnerable to overthrow. [2]
Korybko explains that the hybrid war strategy aims “to disrupt multipolar transnational connective projects,” specifically Russia’s Eurasian integration objectives, and China’s Silk Road projects. As he has argued in his writing, the recent insurgencies in Syria and Ukraine represent test cases of a stratagem finding application in the Balkans, East Asia, the Horn of Africa, and even Latin America. [3]
In a special feature length interview for the Global Research News Hour, Korybko elaborates on his thesis, putting it in the post Soviet context, points to flashpoints on the horizon, and outlines how those targeted countries and regions may be able to frustrate the objectives of American war-planners.
Andrew Korybko currently works with the Sputnik news agency. He has also written for Oriental Review and Katehon among other online journals. Much of his work focuses on the tactics of regime change, color revolutions and unconventional warfare used across the world. He is the author of the 2015 book Hybrid Wars: The Indirect Adaptive Approach To Regime Change.
Andrew Korybko currently studies at the Moscow State University of International Relations and is a member of the expert council for the Institute of Strategic Studies and Predictions at the People’s Friendship University of Russia.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Length (59:26)
Click to download the audio (MP3 format)
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Notes:
- http://orientalreview.org/2016/03/04/hybrid-wars-1-the-law-of-hybrid-warfare/
- Andrew Korybko (2015), “Hybrid Wars: The Indirect Adaptive Approach To Regime Change”; (p.10, 59); http://orientalreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/AK-Hybrid-Wars-updated.pdf
- http://orientalreview.org/2016/03/04/hybrid-wars-1-the-law-of-hybrid-warfare/