Hybrid war in the Russian strategy towards Syria: Post-fifth generation wars

Abstract

The question of the new vision of the Russian strategy in rebuilding its global power comes out through its approach to the Syrian situation, depend on different military and non-military incomes in order to feat its numerous strengths to attain its national interests there, which obviously shows the hybrid doctrine within its policy towards Syria. Via this research paper and based on the descriptive-analytical approach, we will try to address the relationship between the concepts of ancient wars and the concepts of irregular wars by providing a detailed understanding of the phenomenon of hybrid wars and its undeniable ambiguity, then discussing the structures and consequences of the Russian hybrid strategy in Syria, then speaking the costs of this. The latter will focus on the security course in Syria, its security and strategic outcomes for the Middle East in general; here the focus is on the hybrid threats and how to build strategies to combat the latter. Given the importance of security and stability in the region, the study determines that although Russia did not fully play the hybrid war in Syria as in Ukraine, its strategy concerning the Syrian crisis posed a clear threat, letting it to achieve its established national goals. A crucial necessity to go beyond the straight up thinking based on reconciling traditional war theories and approaches to contemporary wars and conflicts and transgression to trace how to address features related to strategies which are related to new technologies and development of armed competences