Hybrid Threats on NATO’s Eastern Flank- A Comparative Analysis

The aim of the present article is to analyze, in a compare and contrast perspective, the manner in which national security strategies all over NATO’s Eastern Flank perceive and relate to hybrid threats. Due to space constraints, the analysis shall focus mainly on national security strategies, aiming to correlate the countries’ perception of which vulnerabilities could lead to hybrid threats and the assorted response. In addition to this, the analysis shall also emphasize, wherever possible (given the need for English-translated documents) the place that the tackling of hybrid threats takes both in relation to the country’s main security policy, as well as in connection with the country’s position within NATO, regarding the particular issue of hybrid threats. The choice of the Eastern Flank countries to illustrate the evolution of hybrid threats and of security strategies devised to manage them, stems from the existing disbalance between the Alliance’s Western Flank where such threats are less likely to manifest given the complexity of individual national policies in tackling such vulnerabilities, whereas the Eastern Flank has proven itself to be rather feeble in addressing risks and vulnerabilities residing in the field of critical infrastructures, ergo becoming prone to hybrid attacks.