Today Thursday 8 April 2021, the Deputy Minister of National Defence Alkiviadis Stefanis addressed a speech pertaining to Leadership Challenges and Crises Management at the Seminar on “Applied and Holistic Management of Hybrid Threats and Crises”, organized by the General Directorate for National Defence Policy and Public Relations of the Ministry of National Defence, held at the Air Force Academy.

The aim of the Seminar is to raise the awareness of the participants and effectively train them on holistic management of hybrid threats and crises, providing them with the opportunity to gain knowledge from decision makers during the management of national crises, as well as from experts and representatives of the academic community who practice the study and analysis of such matters.

In the context of today’s time schedule, the Deputy Minister met with lecturer Brigadier General Eran Ortal, Director of the Israeli Think Tank – Dado Center.

The main points of the Dep. Minister’s speech are as follows:

• The trends that will determine the global security environment include the rapid changes in the international systems, as is globalization, the constant rise of revisionist powers, the accelerating progress of innovative technologies, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, all these determine the extremely unstable future strategic environment.

• The revisionist powers consider the Global Liberal Order as a threat. They try to promote their interests without causing military intervention, as well as to raise general negative public feelings.

• In their attempt to achieve the desired results, state and non-state entities plan their strategic movements, based on the combination of means and manners to be used simultaneously, which should be disciplined with the rule that they deserve the resources utilized.

• As long as states compete with each other, they will use strategies and ploys, without trespassing the boundaries of deterrence, which will lead to a totalitarian war. This type of competition is a basic element of International Relations, while simultaneously emerged the term hybrid threat.

• It is absolutely necessary for the target-states to realise the nature and the warning signals related with such type of engagements, as the failure to timely recognize a threat can lead to the destabilization of governments and deter achieving of national goals.

• The escalating war conflicts have been replaced by undeclared wars. The revisionist powers seem to be disappointed by their current status at regional and international level. Their only choice is to change their current status quo, redesign it according to their perception so that they can reinforce their power with what they consider fair for them.

• The cornerstones of hybrid warfare, disinformation and deception are not new concepts. That said, we still don’t have the doctrines and the operational lessons learned to be able to tackle such activities, which are over the line of regular diplomacy and below the line of warfare.

• The reaction requires committing to stable, cohesive, long-term strategies and the successful management of the enemy’s narration. Simultaneously a lot more should be done to tackle a hybrid campaign, and in this context it is important to realise that the coordination of all pillars of national power is of vital importance.

• The strategies and operational challenges refer to the deterrence of a potential enemy entering and covering the void in governmental services caused in our interior. This means that first we need to define the appropriate strategic goals and consequently plan timely the manners to achieve this.

• Resilience in the context of national security refers to the ability of the societies to manage threats, to adjust to them, and recover in case of an attack or any other incident, without losing the ability to provide basic functions and services to the members of the society. Resilience means the ability of a society to recover after any sustained pressure.

• Hybrid wars are not something new. The difference in our era is the advancement of technology and its application in this type of operations.

• The progress of society results in the vulnerability of the social web and consequently of its cohesion and resilience. Thus National Will is bent, the most important element of power of a state.

• The reaction to a hybrid war disguises many moral and political dilemmas which should be categorized and prepared in time. We need to realise that the resilience of political structures, resources and services is the first line of defence for modern societies.