ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how states are using hybrid warfare to maintain, achieve or re-establish hegemony at the regional level. It defines hybrid war, highlights its key characteristics and explores why states are pursuing hybrid war today. It specifies tactical, operational and strategic indicators to look for when determining if a state is following a hybrid war approach and uses this framework to assess the actions of Russia, China, Iran and the United States/West. It finds that hybrid war has proven to be an effective approach for a state actor to exercise influence over other state actors and is therefore likely to remain a central feature of the global security environment. There is no obvious place for hybrid war in existing theoretical understandings of hegemony. Realists equate hegemony with preponderant military power, but Russia, China and Iran are using hybrid war to dominate others specifically because they do not have preponderant military power in their region. There is room for future theoretical work on where to place hybrid war within the international relations literature on hegemony.
