Countering Hybrid Warfare in Ukraine and NATO : Military Aspects, Lessons and Best Practices

This edited volume examines how states counter Russian hybrid warfare, through the dual lenses of Ukraine’s experience and broader international responses.

This edited volume examines how states counter Russian hybrid warfare, through the dual lenses of Ukraine’s experience and broader international responses. Building on research conducted within the NATO Science and Technology Organization, the work brings together scholars and military practitioners from Ukraine, the Baltic states, the UK, Scandinavia, Central Europe, and the Western Balkans, to critically analyse Russia’s use of hybrid warfare tools—including information operations, military signalling, legal manipulation, and strategic influence—across multiple domains and regions. The volume is structured in two parts: Part I presents primary-source accounts from Ukrainian defence professionals who built and adapted institutions under sustained Russian hybrid pressure from 2014 onward, covering legal frameworks, information security, strategic communications, territorial defence, scenario planning, and maritime operations. Part II offers comparative case studies spanning NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence in Estonia, Russian military exercises in the Baltic Sea, hybrid warfare and resilience in the Baltic States, political and intelligence penetration of the Czech Republic, narrative shaping in Kosovo, and energy coercion across Croatia and the Western Balkans. The volume applies net assessment and military effectiveness as its analytical framework, asking what hybrid instruments Russia employs, how targeted states adapt, and whether those adaptations transfer to other contexts. The book will be of much interest to students of hybrid warfare, military and strategic studies, foreign policy and security studies, and will also be of relevance to defence professionals, NATO policymakers, and security analysts.