Hybrid War: Idea and Reality

The article is devoted to understanding the nature of hybrid warfare – a collective term that describes aggression in the gray zone between war and peace, a combination of military and non-military methods of waging war in order to achieve certain political, economic or other goals. The author argues that it is hardly possible to avoid or overcome the normative and strategic dilemmas that a «war without borders» brings with it without revising the historically established understanding of war. Therefore, the focus of the study shifts to considering the traditional understanding of war as a symmetrical and internationally regulated confrontation between two opponents, as well as the complex relationship between historical military experience and the ideas of war that follow from it. In summing up, the author notes that the hybrid essence of war defies a clear conceptual definition, but can be understood in its heterogeneous elements and characteristics, being a useful means of thinking about the past, present and future of war.