Hybrid Warfare

by Murray, Williamson; Mansoor, Peter R.

• ISBN13: 9781107026087
• ISBN10: 1107026083
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-07-09
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

Hybrid warfare has been an integral part of the historical landscape since the ancient world, but only recently have analysts – incorrectly – categorised these conflicts as unique. Great powers throughout history have confronted opponents who used a combination of regular and irregular forces to negate the advantage of the great powers' superior conventional military strength. As this study shows, hybrid wars are labour-intensive and long-term affairs; they are difficult struggles that defy the domestic logic of opinion polls and election cycles. Hybrid wars are also the most likely conflicts of the twenty-first century, as competitors use hybrid forces to wear down America's military capabilities in extended campaigns of exhaustion. Nine historical examples of hybrid warfare, from ancient Rome to the modern world, provide readers with context by clarifying the various aspects of conflicts and examining how great powers have dealt with them in the past.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Hybrid warfare in history

Conquering Germania: a province too far

Keeping the Irish down and the Spanish out: English strategies of submission in Ireland, 1594-1603

The American revolution: hybrid war in America's past

That accursed Spanish war: the Peninsular War, 1807-14

The union's counter-guerrilla war, 1861-5

Fighting 'this nation of liars to the very end': the German army in the Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1

Small wars and great games: the British empire and hybrid warfare, 1700-1970

An unexpected encounter with hybrid warfare: the Japanese experience in north China, 1937-45

Hybrid war in Vietnam

Conclusion

What the past suggests

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