HYBRID THREATS TO EUROPE IN THE RUSSIA CRISIS: SWEDISH PERSPECTIVES ON SECURITY AND PEACE
Helfried Carl in conversation with Fredrik Löjdquist
HYBRID THREATS TO EUROPE IN THE RUSSIA CRISIS: SWEDISH PERSPECTIVES ON SECURITY AND PEACE
The recent exposure of pro-Russian disinformation networks in Austria shows once again the wide range of threats to our security. The fusion of hybrid and conventional attack methods has never been more evident and pervasive than in the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine - and beyond. Extensive disinformation campaigns with narratives to influence society and targeted cyber attacks on state infrastructure or national institutions prepared the conventional military attack and accompanied the war. Hybrid threats are not only a foreign and security policy problem, but also an internal security problem; the boundary between external and internal security has become blurred. Fake news campaigns are fuelling the polarisation of societies through technology and propaganda and undermining the truth-oriented discourse that is essential for a democracy.
How do we meet these challenges at national and EU level?
How can a new holistic and comprehensive security culture be developed to overcome cultural, organisational, constitutional, legal and mental barriers and effectively counter hybrid threats?
What analyses and strategies do Austria and Sweden share on these threats, and where have our perspectives and responses developed differently 30 years after our joint accession to the EU?
Fredrik Löjdquist, Director of the Stockholm Centre for East European Studies (SCEEUS), Sweden's first Ambassador and Special Envoy for Countering Hybrid Threats based in Stockholm 2018-2021; former Board Member of the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats in Helsinki, Finland 2018-2021
Helfried Carl, former Head of Office of the President of the National Council and former Austrian Ambassador to Slovakia, partner of the Innovation in Politics Institute in Vienna, which he co-founded in 2019, and founder of the European Capital of Democracy initiative.