Politics of Hybrid Warfare: The Remaking of Security in Czechia after 2014

Description

This is a first book-long analysis showing how the notion of ‘hybrid warfare’ was used to transform security policies and discourses in an EU/NATO country. Building on current debates in International Political Sociology, Critical Security Studies, and Critical Geopolitics, it provides a novel account of how crisis, geopolitics, uncertainty, and expertise are intertwined in the social construction of threats. Based on extensive and original empirical research of large textual archive and elite interviews in the Czech Republic and Brussels, the book shows how officials, bureaucrats, journalists, activists, and experts all participate in the reshaping of security in a new geopolitical environment. Zooming on the case of Czechia and its specific Central European context, it complements the predominantly Western-centric studies of insecurity with an account of how the liminal position on an East/West boundary influences security politics. As a first study of its kind and scope, it will be of interest to academics and students interested in Central European politics, practices and discourses of hybrid warfare, as well as critical approaches to security and geopolitics. Acknowledgements Contents About the Authors Abbreviations Chapter 1: Introduction: The Problematic Politics of ‘hybrid warfare’ Problematising ‘hybrid warfare’: A Strange and Counter-productive Discourse ‘Hybrid warfare’: A ‘lab leak’ from Military Debates The Supposed Dangers of HW … and the Real Problems Explicating the ‘hybrid warfare’ Discourse in Czechia, 2014–2021 Key Concepts and Arguments Research Design, Methods, Data Clarifications Outline of the Book References Chapter 2: Liminal Insecurities: Crises, Geopolitics and the Logic of War Liminality and Ontological Insecurity Times of Crises: Czechia in 2008–2013 Maps of Fear: Geopoliticisation and East/West Liminality Everything Becomes War: Warification and the War/Peace Liminality Conclusion References Chapter 3: Formation: Emergence of the ‘hybrid warfare’ Assemblage in Czechia (2014–2016/17) Assemblage: Decentred Agency in the Production of (In)security 2014: Initial Shock, NATO’s Entrepreneurship and First Glimpses of Warification 2015: Expansion, Domestic Entrepreneurship and Warification Unbound Bureaucratic and Military Circles: Shift to Warification Media and Civil Society: Growing Interest and Arrival of New Actors Intelligence Community: Getting Public Migration as an Amplifier 2016: The Assemblage Comes Together EU, NATO and Growing Transnational Exposure of HW Civil Society: Rise of the European Values Think Tank Official Authorisation: Finalisation of the National Security Audit 2016/2017: Contesting CTHH and Setting the Main Lines of the HW Debate Doing the Assembling: Core Actors and Connections European Values Think Tank Think Tanks and Masaryk University Journalists Security Bureaucrats Conclusion References Chapter 4: Politicisation, Institutionalisation, Internationalisation: The Czech ‘hybrid warfare’ Assemblage in 2017–2021 Elections, Protests, Epidemics: Normalisation of HW and Branching of the Assemblage Hopes, Frustrations and ‘Disinformation’: The Elections of 2017 and 2018 Hybrid War and Czech Politics: From the Parliamentary Floor to a Prague Square Covid-19: From a Hybrid Threat to a Social Problem The Vrbětice Attack: Hybrid Warfare or State Terrorism? The Institutionalisation of the Assemblage and Specialisation of Its Members State Institutions Civil Society Internationalisation of the HW Assemblage Conclusion References Chapter 5: Differentiation: Three Main Narratives of ‘hybrid warfare’ Defence Narrative: Protecting the State from External Threats Counterinfluence Narrative: Subversive Agents Within the Society Education Narrative: Fostering Responsible Individuals Conclusion References Chapter 6: Boundaries: Expertise, Authority and Contestation in the Czech ‘hybrid warfare’ Debate Assemblage, Expertise and Its Boundaries Intelligence Expertise and History Education (Counter)Intelligence Expertise and the HW Threat in the BIS Annual Reports Setting the Boundaries of BIS Authority: The Supposedly Pro-Soviet History Education Journalistic Expertise and the Ricin Affair Journalistic Expertise and HW Ricin Affair and the Limits of Journalistic HW Expertise Academic Criticism: Limits to Warification and the Possibility to Think HW Differently And Against the Trolls Have Risen the Elves … Conclusion References Chapter 7: Conclusion: Reclaiming Politics from the Logic of War Dismantling ‘hybrid warfare’ Thinking Different Politics Slowness as De-escalation Vulnerability as We-ness Rethinking Democratic Conflict References List of Interviews Index