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.
Source image : image generated by AI
Registration by Thursday 13 March 2025
at the latest is compulsory.
Evening conference on 20 March 2025
Russia’s New Generation Warfare Explained
Dr Janis BERZINS
Moderator: Kurt Engelen
> 17:00 – Registration
> 17:30 – Conference
> 19:00 – Réception
Colloquium on 21 March 2025
Russia’s New Generation Warfare
Panel 1 : Thematic Approach
Panel 2: Geographic Approach
> 08:00 – Registration
> 08:50 – Colloquium
> 15:00 – End
Language: English
Simultaneous interpretation in French and Dutch
Campus Renaissance
Rue Hobbema/Hobbemastraat, 8
1000 Brussels