Call for Papers (CfP): Hybrid Warfare conference at Swansea University

Call for Papers: Hybrid warfare/security 5-6 June 2023

This is a call for papers and contributions for an interdisciplinary hybrid (online and in-person) conference and workshop exploring hybrid warfare/security as a concept and in case studies. The conference and workshop are organised by and held at Swansea University, UK, jointly with the University of South Wales. It will be held on 5-6 June 2023. The event is part of the Jean Monnet Module EUHYBRID, co-funded by the European Union.[1]

Hybrid warfare/security cover a wide range of activities and a wide range of actors and the ‘Gray Zone’ beneath violence and armed attack into the ‘Red Zone’ of conflict and war. We welcome presentations and proposals. We have plans for a co-edited book as a result of the conference as well as a workshop exploring future research and funding options. Hybrid warfare/security includes (but is not limited to):

• Overt and covert political and economic pressure campaigns.
• Information warfare.
• Specifically, political, social, and economic tactical and strategic influence operations over target audiences/populations driven by social media and mainstream media.
• Tactical or strategic intervention campaigns. This includes election interference campaigns.
• Agents of influence.
• Bribery and corruption.
• Disputed territories, ‘passportization’ and forced deportations.
• Lawfare in territorial disputes and other areas.
• False flag operations.
• Paramilitary and non and sub-state forces and actors.
• Political assassinations and dissident detentions.
• Cyber espionage and cyber warfare and the links between these two sets of activities.
• This includes intelligence gathering, and pre-positioning to threaten critical infrastructure (electricity, water, transportation, healthcare etc.), intellectual property theft (especially of innovative technologies) and related espionage activities.
• Cyber warfare meanwhile could see dormant threats activated in a wide range of asymmetric or symmetrical/peer scenarios including regional or major power conflict.   

The actors involved range from governments and their militaries – but especially their intelligence agencies – to a wide array of sub and non-state actors. These range from lone wolf cyber hacktivists and crackers through to organised collectives and organised crime gangs. Organised crime gangs can also be involved as proxy actors. This has seen cyber criminals co-opted into state service for a variety of reasons (fear of prosecution or ‘patriotic service’ among them). This lends some states various degrees of plausible deniability.

Due to the tight turn-around, we welcome full papers, short presentations, and round-table contributions. To express your interest, please send a 200 word abstract outlining your contribution and a 1 (or maximum 2) page CV to Dr Kristan Stoddart (k.d.stoddart@swansea.ac.uk), at Swansea University, and/or Professor Christian Kaunert (christian.kaunert@southwales.ac.uk), University of South Wales/Dublin City University. The deadline for proposals is Friday 26^th May, 2pm BST. Please also specify if you would be interested in attending both the conference and the follow-up exploratory workshop. There is a small amount of funding available on a competitive basis to domestic presenters for travel and accommodation if no support is available from your host institution or through external funding.

[1] Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.