BU Research Blog

Dr Sascha Dov Bachmann, Associate Professor in International Law (BU) and War Studies (Swedish Defence University), acting Director of BU’s Centre for Conflict,Rule of Law and Society has joined forces with Professor Louis de Koker  and Professor Pompeu Casanovas from La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia to convene the conference

Hybrid threats and the Asia – Pacific region: Hybrid warfare and cyber-attacks within the Australian – Pacific context

Global peace and security has seen the arrival of new security threats in the form of hybrid threats and cyber-attacks.

This symposium provides a platform for the discussion of a new form of warfare, namely ‘hybrid warfare’. Hybrid war is the use of a range of non-conventional methods (e.g. cyber warfare and lawfare) in order to disrupt, discourage and disable an adversary’s capabilities without engaging in open hostilities and may use the full range of military and non-military options for achieving its strategic objectives. Such hybrid warfare might include aspects of ‘cyber terrorism’, ‘cyber war’ and cyber-based ‘information operations’, a topic of particular interest given Russia’s ‘Ukrainian Spring’, the continuing threat posed by radical Islamist groups in Africa, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region as well geopolitical shifts.

The interdisciplinary symposium will discuss military doctrines, new and traditional approaches to war and peace and its perceptions, the use of cyber warfare, the use of mass media communication to meddle in internal state affairs, including impact on state elections and public sentiment, as well as the use of lawfare (the strategy of using – or misusing – law as a substitute for traditional military means to achieve a war-fighting objective) to achieve military goals in a non-kinetic way and the use of various means to disrupt a nation’s economy, public services and national interests.

At the heart of the symposium stand the questions of how to increase resilience and whether responses to such hybrid threats need to change in the future.

This seminal conference brings together academics and military professionals from the region and beyond to discuss new security challenges from a Asia-Pacific and especially an Australian perspective.

Deadline for submissions:                   31 October 2018

Symposium Date:                                   25 – 26 March 2019

Place:                                                        La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

Proposals must be sent by email to the Lead Convenor: Professor (AP) Sascha Dov Bachmann (email: sbachmann@bournemouth.ac.uk).

Convenors:

• Professor (AP) Sascha Dov Bachmann (email: sbachmann@bournemouth.ac.uk (Lead Convenor)
• Professor Pompeu Casanovas (CasanovasRomeu@latrobe.edu.au) and Professor Louis de Koker (L.deKoker@latrobe.edu.au).