Abstract
Building resilience against hybrid threats is rapidly becoming a critical
national security issue for countries around the world. The Nordic-Baltic
region has witnessed an increase in hybrid threats, which in 2023 alone
included sabotage of critical undersea infrastructure, cyberattacks, continued GPS jamming, and the use of weaponized migration from across the
borders with Russia. Following the double shock of Covid-19 and Russia’s
illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, the Nordic countries are in the
process of rethinking their strategies for societal security and resilience.
In this context, all Nordic countries have taken concrete stock of the
worsening hybrid threat landscape when embarking on their reforms.
This Hybrid CoE Working Paper examines and highlights leading Nordic
practices in building resilience to hybrid threats, for the benefit of other
countries currently assessing their resilience. To this end, the Nordic
countries are compared both in terms of their baseline situation and
their ongoing reforms, highlighting key commonalities and differences.
The choice of the Nordic countries as the subject of this study is justified
against the background of their long experience in operating comprehensive “whole-of-government”, “whole-of-society” and “all-hazards” systems
of security and resilience.
Many of the drivers behind these reforms apply to other countries in
the Euro-Atlantic region, as do many of the solutions that the Nordics
are currently implementing, or have recently implemented. Cyber defence
and foreign investment screening are two examples of areas where many
European countries have undertaken significant reforms. Zooming in
on the Nordics, specific steps have been taken to protect democratic
processes against influence operations and, importantly, to improve
the coordination of intelligence, analysis, decision-making and measures
against hybrid threats, bringing whole-of-government and whole-of-society resources to bear in countering them. Various efforts are also
underway in the Nordic countries to bridge the legal and institutional
gaps that expose potential vulnerabilities between a state of war and
a peacetime emergency.
national security issue for countries around the world. The Nordic-Baltic
region has witnessed an increase in hybrid threats, which in 2023 alone
included sabotage of critical undersea infrastructure, cyberattacks, continued GPS jamming, and the use of weaponized migration from across the
borders with Russia. Following the double shock of Covid-19 and Russia’s
illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, the Nordic countries are in the
process of rethinking their strategies for societal security and resilience.
In this context, all Nordic countries have taken concrete stock of the
worsening hybrid threat landscape when embarking on their reforms.
This Hybrid CoE Working Paper examines and highlights leading Nordic
practices in building resilience to hybrid threats, for the benefit of other
countries currently assessing their resilience. To this end, the Nordic
countries are compared both in terms of their baseline situation and
their ongoing reforms, highlighting key commonalities and differences.
The choice of the Nordic countries as the subject of this study is justified
against the background of their long experience in operating comprehensive “whole-of-government”, “whole-of-society” and “all-hazards” systems
of security and resilience.
Many of the drivers behind these reforms apply to other countries in
the Euro-Atlantic region, as do many of the solutions that the Nordics
are currently implementing, or have recently implemented. Cyber defence
and foreign investment screening are two examples of areas where many
European countries have undertaken significant reforms. Zooming in
on the Nordics, specific steps have been taken to protect democratic
processes against influence operations and, importantly, to improve
the coordination of intelligence, analysis, decision-making and measures
against hybrid threats, bringing whole-of-government and whole-of-society resources to bear in countering them. Various efforts are also
underway in the Nordic countries to bridge the legal and institutional
gaps that expose potential vulnerabilities between a state of war and
a peacetime emergency.
| Original language | English |
|---|
| Place of Publication | Helsingfors |
|---|---|
| Publisher | The European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats |
| Number of pages | 36 |
| ISBN (Print) | N 978-952-7591-03-1 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 978-952-7591-02-4 |
| Publication status | Published - 05.2024 |
| MoE publication type | D4 Published development or research report or study |
Keywords
- 517 Political science