This thesis strives to raise and answer three questions about the concept of hybrid warfare: What concepts of hybrid warfare exist so far? How similar or different are they? How useful are they from conceptual standpoint? The questions are answered by a conceptual analysis consisting of survey of existing concepts, their comparison and detailed evaluation of two of them on the basis of criteria of conceptualization. The answers revealed several important issues of the concept. Firstly, there are too many different concepts of hybrid warfare, often formulated with insufficient care for previous debates and already established concepts. Secondly, the formulated concepts of hybrid warfare are often different to a degree, which calls into question the claim, that all of them are trying to capture the same phenomenon. Lastly, even the better elaborated of the hybrid warfare concepts seem to be rather poorly conceptualized and not very useful. These three answers together cast shadow of doubt on the currently popular concept of hybrid warfare. The results of this work call for more careful thinking on whether and how the use of this concept is helping or hurting both our understanding of contemporary conflicts and our defence efforts against contemporary threats.

Hybrid Warfare and Information Operations are not new concepts. However, what could be seen as new is the framing of conflicts in a “negative peace” narrative. As identified in the thesis, negative peace has developed into a means to circumvent the categorization of conflicts as war and hence bypass the legal boundaries of war and limit international intervention. This thesis aims to test whether this view of negative peace can be supported by making a StructuredFocused Comparison between the means of war employed by Russia in the conflict in Georgia and the conflict in Ukraine. First, the thesis outlines a broad understanding of the concept and presents the theory of negative peace. The outline is followed by a conceptual typology of the categorization of a conflict in terms of either “War” or “Negative Peace”, depending on the degree of presence of “Hybrid warfare” and “Information operations”. Finally, this view on the relationship was tested, and in our case, the findings show support. This thesis was initially submitted in January 2021 before the renewed conflict and invasion of Ukraine by the Russian state. The revisions made to the thesis focus on clarifying and furthering the explanations that the examiners deemed necessary without addressing the current situation. Thus the focus of the thesis is kept on the originally established time frame, and the new conditions won't have an altering effect on the previously established analysis, beyond the final commentary on the further renewed relevance of research in the topic at hand.