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Hybrid Warfare came to prominence in the 21st century, the "Age of Globalization" that has opened up many new technical and communication options and shrunk distances. According to Prussian general and military theorist Carl von Clausewitz "Every age has its own kind of war, its own limiting conditions, and its own peculiar preconceptions." While fighting wars in the conventional manner. Russian General Gerasimov holds that "In the 21st century we have seen a tendency towards blurring the lines between the states of war and peace. Wars are no longer declared and, having begun, proceed according to an unfamiliar template"
This new form of warfare avoiding a clear differentiation between war and peace, soldiers and civilians is practices by all sides of the different divides. The US definition characterizes Hybrid Warfare as "Synchronized use of multiple instruments of power tailored to specific vulnerabilities across the full spectrum of societal functions to achieve synergistic effects." Russian scholar Korybko, on the other hand, says "Hybrid Wars can be defined as "externally provoked identity conflicts, which exploit historical, ethnic, religious, socio-economic, and geographic differences within geostrategic transit states through the phased transition from Color Revolutions to unconventional Wars in order to disrupt, control, or influence multipolar transnational connective infrastructure projects by means of Regime Tweaking, Regime Change, and/or Regime Reboot."
While clear differences may be visible between the two definitions, in common they envisage military strategy that employs political warfare and blends conventional warfare, irregular warfare and cyber warfare with other influencing methods, such as fake news, diplomacy and foreign electoral intervention. By combining kinetic operations with subversive efforts, the aggressor intends to avoid attribution or retribution. Hybrid warfare can be used to describe the flexible and complex dynamics of the battle space requiring a highly adaptable and resilient responses.
A variety of terms are used to refer to the hybrid war concept: hybrid war, hybrid threats, hybrid influencing or hybrid adversary (as well as non-linear war, non-traditional war or special war). Hybrid warfare employs means other than conventional military troops, tactics and strategies, to include the employment of irregular military and paramilitary forces like guerrillas, paramilitaries, etc. Islamic State, Hamas and Hizbullah use terrorist acts as a means. Use of non-violent means by civilian institutions include psychological assaults...