Over the years, ‘hybrid warfare’ has become a generic term to describe the combined use of non-conventional actions either to substitute or to support military operations with a view to reaching a strategic goal.
In 2013, many Western analysts saw in Russian General Valery Gerasimov’s article, the full title of which being “The Value of Science is in Foresight: New Challenges Demand Rethinking the Forms and Methods of Carrying out Combat Operations”, a paradigm shift in warfare doctrine, and the term ‘hybrid’ soon became a buzzword used for all covert hostile actions, as opposed to direct military engagement of forces.
The Russian operation in Crimea was launched on 27 February 2014, exactly one year after Gerasimov’s article was published in the Russian journal Military-Industrial Kurier on 27 February 2013. These coinciding dates seemed to suggest that the annexation of Crimea and the ensuing occupation of the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts were a direct implementation of what had become known as the ‘Gerasimov Doctrine’. That somewhat hasty conclusion, however, proved far too simplistic.
Today, more than ten years have passed since the mysterious little green men appeared on the Crimean Peninsula. The world is now witnessing how the Russian aggression against Ukraine has evolved into a fully fledged war, in which old military doctrines based on massive use of lethal kinetic force result again in huge attrition of equipment and personnel.
What is the link between the Russian ‘new generation warfare’ described in Gerasimov’s article of 2013 and today’s Russian war of aggression against Ukraine? How does Russia envisage its own warfare doctrine and how is it implemented in different regions of the world? These questions will be addressed on 20 and 21 March 2025.
The event will take place in English in the conference room at campus Renaissance (entrance: rue Hobbema 8/Hobbemastraat 8, 1000 Brussels). We will start off with an evening conference on Thursday 20 March 2025 at 17:30 during which Russia’s ‘new generation warfare’ will be extensively described and continue with a colloquium on Friday 21 March 2025 from 08:50 until 15:00 hosting two panels addressing thematic and geographic aspects of Russia’s covert and overt action in pursuing its strategic goals. Simultaneous interpretation in French and Dutch will be provided in the conference room. It will not be possible to follow the colloquium online. However, subject to the consent of the speakers, a recording of their presentations will be made available afterwards on our website.
Registration by Thursday 13 March 2025 at the latest is compulsory.
