This week I have co-organised a Staff-Ride for a course on land operations and tactics for the Higher Command and Staff Program at the Swedish Defence University together with Lieutenant Colonel Per Lindahl, Head of the Land Operations Division. It was a very successful trip where we used five different themes – Offensive/Defensive, Division/Command, Technology, tactics, and Logistics – as a starting point for discussions and seminars at various themed terrain locations.
We also spent a day studying and reflecting on the consequences of the profession, leadership, courage and symbolic values during a visit to Verdun.
On 1 May I will start my second three years term as a member of the Research and Education Board (Forsknings- och utbildningsnämnden, FoUN) of the Swedish Defence University. I will also serve as a member of the Research Board (Forskningsnämnden).
Today I was participating in a panel on Ukraine as part of our Strategic Leadership Development education (“Strategisk Chefsutveckling (SCU)”). I spoke on the Urban Warfare dimension, sharing some of the findings of a forthcoming book chapter in a forthcoming edited volume on Advanced Land Warfare: Tactics and Operations (Oxford University Press, forthcoming) that I am editing together with Assoc. Prof. Niklas Nilsson.
My college Niklas Nilsson, Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in War Studies and my co-convenor of the Hybrid Warfare Research Group (HWRG) and the Land Warfare Research Group (LWRG) will talk on Ukraine in a live webinar moderated by the Vice-Chancellor of the Swedish Defence Robert Egnell on Perspectives on the war in Ukraine.
Attending the Finish National Defence University’s Russia seminar 2022. The seminar discusses Russian military policy and the research development in that field. The main theme of the seminar will be ”Russian Concept of War and Operation, Management, and Use of Military Power – Conceptual Change”.
Résumé
Security challenges arising from hybrid threats and hybrid warfare, HT&HW, are today high on the security agenda not only in Sweden but across the globe. Despite the attention and the growing body of studies on the subject, there is a lack of research bringing attention to how these challenges can be addressed. This article contributes to such an approach by sharing the findings of a project that brings together practitioners and scholarly perspectives on this subject spanning the threats themselves as well as the tools and means to counter them. The article outlines the Western response to hybrid threats and hybrid warfare. It is argued that there is no single response to HT&HW, nor to building resilience. HT&HW needs to be addressed through a comprehensive, all-inclusive approach. Finally, the article outlines how we address these challenges in practice.
Today I was a member of the grading committee for Nicholas Olczak successfully defended his dissertation “Understanding China’s Rise: Competing Online Identity Discourses behind Short-term Changes in Foreign Policy” at Stockholm University.
Today I held a guest lecture at the Akademia Sztuki Wojennej in Warszawa, Poland for one of their master programs. Today’s topic was “The Grey Zone, Hybrid Threats and Hybrid Warfare: Concepts & Cases.” As always excellently chaired by the Director of Global Affairs and Diplomacy Studies National Security Dr Marzena Żakowska.
Military operations and tactics | Land Warfare | Urban Warfare | Hybrid Threats & Warfare | Intelligence Analysis | China | Security & Strategy | East Asia | South China Sea | Belt & Road | Energy | North Korea