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Labelling Hybrid Warfare: The “Gerasimov

Doctrine” in Think Tank Discourse

Christoph Bilbana, Hanna Griningerb

Abstract

Knowledge production in the context of conflicts is essential to understand the thinking of

the actors involved. Before the significant deterioration of Russian-Western relations in

2014, Russia was not the focus of security policy expertise for several decades. At the

height of the Ukrainian crisis, “hybrid warfare” and the “Gerasimov Doctrine” emerged in

scientific discourse to describe Russia’s actions, as reliable expertise was scarce. The

“Gerasimov doctrine” assumes a new kind of Russian non-linear warfare. Differences in

the interpretation of the “Gerasimov doctrine” led us to examine the perception of the

concept in different regional discourses (Baltic States, Great Britain, German-speaking

countries and Spain) between 2013 and 2016 Using discourse analysis, we found that

the focuses differed, and there is no uniform interpretation of the “Gerasimov doctrine”.

We complemented our research by a thorough contextualisation of the genesis of

Gerasimov’s speech and its significance in Russian discourse, which further supports the

non-existence of the “Gerasimov doctrine”. Nevertheless, the idea became widely

popular. We draw on existing research by Eriksson and Norman as well as Kraft to reveal

the mechanisms of knowledge production behind the “Gerasimov doctrine”. We describe

three functions the “Gerasimov doctrine” can fulfil: simplification, attention gathering and

legitimisation. Finally, we link the findings to the topic of the 2019 ISMS Conference and

argue that military science would benefit from open, critical and interdisciplinary

approaches.

Keywords:

Gerasimov doctrine, knowledge production, discourse analysis, Russian

military thinking, hybrid warfare

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Original Publication:

Bilban, Christoph/Grininger, Hanna (2020): Labelling Hybrid Warfare: The “Gerasimov

Doctrine” in Think Tank Discourse. In: Peischel, Wolfgang/Bilban, Christoph (eds.):

Building Military Science for the Benefit of Society. International Society of Military

Sciences. Carola Hartmann miles-Verlag: Berlin. pp. 211–237.

a Institute for Peace Support and Conflict Management, National Defence Academy, Vienna, Austria

Contact details: christoph.bilban@bmlv.gv.at

b Institute for Peace Support and Conflict Management, National Defence Academy, Vienna, Austria

Contact details: hanna.grininger@hotmail.com