Global Britain in the grey zone: Between stagecraft and statecraft. Issue 4 (2nd October 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rauta, Vladimir; Monaghan, Sean
• Is Part Of: Contemporary security policy. Volume 42:Issue 4(2021)
• Page Start: 475
• Page End: 497
• Publication Date: 2021-10-02
• Subjects: Hybrid warfare -- hybrid threats -- grey zone -- defense strategy -- United Kingdom -- Integrated Review; Arms control -- Periodicals; Disarmament -- Periodicals; 327.174
• DOI: 10.1080/13523260.2021.1980984
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1352-3260

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The United Kingdom's integrated defense and security review put "grey zone" or "hybrid" challenges at the center of national security and defense strategy. The United Kingdom is not alone: The security and defense policies of NATO, the European Union, and several other countries (including the United States, France, Germany, and Australia) have taken a hybrid-turn in recent years. This article attempts to move the hybrid debate toward more fertile ground for international policymakers and scholars by advocating a simple distinction between threats and warfare. The United Kingdom's attempts to grapple with its own hybrid policy offer a national case study in closing the gap between rhetoric and practice, or stagecraft and statecraft, before an avenue of moving forward is proposed—informally, through a series of questions, puzzles, and lessons from the British experience—to help international policy and research communities align their efforts to address their own stagecraft-statecraft dichotomies.