Reassembling War in Society: Securing Knowledge, the Economy, and Critical Infrastructure in the Face of Hybrid Threats

Abstract

Perceptions of war and insecurity have undergone a drastic shift in Europe over the past decade. The growing assertiveness of ‘revisionist powers’ like Russia and China, alongside the retrenchment of the United States, have been interpreted by policy experts as a deterioration of the international security environment. In this new threat landscape, so-called hybrid threats pose a persistent and complex set of challenges to European security and blur the boundaries between war and peace. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has exacerbated concerns about ‘hybrid threats’ and the risk of escalation into ‘conventional’ military conflict. This shift in threat perceptions has not been without consequence. European governments have prioritised their national and collective defence and security interests. This has not only resulted in a sharp increase in defence spending, but also the implementation of new measures aimed at mitigating security risks for vital processes (such as international exchanges in scientific research and education) and critical infrastructures (including telecommunication networks and harbours). To better understand why, how, and with what effect this shift in threat perceptions is taking place, the resulting process of change is analysed here as a reassemblage of war. Through three in-depth case studies, this dissertation investigates how, despite their differences, coalitions of public and private, civilian and military actors are coalescing around shared interests defined in terms of knowledge security, economic security, and the security of critical infrastructure. In doing so, the dissertation explores how the threat of war produces and is reproduced through social change, leaving little of society untouched. War, in other words, is continually reassembled in society. Besides giving insight into the how and why of war’s reassemblage over the past decade, the dissertation also seeks to problematise its effects. Does, for example, the reassemblage of war inadvertently entail a disassemblage of peace?