Hybrid Threats

US Strategic Command boss Gen. Robert Kehler said today’s threats are “hybrid combinations” of strategies, tactics, capabilities, and procedures all coming together based on US adversaries’ objectives. Speaking during a June 12 Capitol Hill address sponsored by AFA, the National Defense Industrial Association, and the Reserve Officers Association, Kehler said North Korea’s “cycle of provocation” and Syria’s ongoing civil war are just some examples of today’s complex global security environment that “validate and demonstrate” the hybrid nature of such threats. “This is a time of great uncertainty and great complexity,” said Kehler. He added, “There is no single threat…there is no joint solution to a single threat. We are dealing with hybrid threats of various kinds, and I think our thinking (and planning have) to be more flexible, more strategic, (and) certainly more agile.”