OLD METHODS IN THE NEW FRAMEWORK”. STRATEGY OF GREY ZONES IN HYBRID WARFARE

The concept of waging conflict in Grey Zones was adopted in the US community of international security analysts several years ago. It refers to the use of primarily non-militaryinstruments to create spaces of deep conflict at multiple social, political, cultural, religious and economic levels. These conflicts take place below the threshold of war. One of the first concepts that we can consider as the genesis of this type of strategy is the concept of rebel wars created in the 1960s, by the Russian strategist, Colonel Yevgeny Messner. This new type of war was to be characterised by the predominance of civilian combat, the key importance of psychological impact and the decisive importance of the use of troops and special services. Messner also pointed to the growing role of terror in the conduct of military operations. Another important feature of the new concept was the “denationalisation of war”. Fighting social groups, military and paramilitary sub-units were to be deprived of recognition marks.Keywords: insurgency wars, asymmetric conflicts, hybrid wars, Yevgeny Messner, grey zones.