Following the news that Croatia has recently become the 29th member of the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, we asked the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs why Croatia decided to take this step, what the hybrid threat is for this country, what it gains from it, how much it costs, and what exactly is a hybrid threat, a term that was once popularized in this region by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković. The Ministry explains that the mentioned centre 'serves as a hub of expertise to support individual and collective efforts of participants to enhance their civil and military capabilities, resilience, and readiness to counter hybrid threats, with a special emphasis on European security', and that 'the intention is for all participants, as well as the EU and NATO, to utilize this collective expertise and experience of the Centre'. After all, they continue, the National Security Strategy of the Republic of Croatia, among other things, foresees the development of capabilities to defend against hybrid actions.
What hybrid actions are, which before the outbreak of the pandemic were on the verge of becoming the latest trend in international and domestic politics, is not entirely clear. 'Definitions of hybrid threats vary and must be flexible to respond to their changing nature, and they represent coordinated, directed, and synchronized actions that attack a specific target audience, society/state, exploiting existing and creating new vulnerabilities within a particular community/society and democratic structure and institutions using political, economic, military, civil, security, intelligence, energy, media, health, information-communication, and other systems and means', they attempt to interpret the slippery nature of the hybrid threat concept at the Ministry. More specifically, these are often combinations of coercive and subversive activities, as well as conventional and unconventional methods that state or non-state actors can use in a coordinated manner to achieve specific goals, while not officially declaring war. In other words, a hybrid threat is in the eye of the beholder, implying more or less anything that someone perceives as a threat to the state, and is not a formal declaration of war. By the way, formal declarations of war went out of fashion somewhere during World War II.
Now, which hybrid threats small Croatia is exposed to, the Ministry could not specify, but they did draw attention to the years-long visible defamation campaigns against Croatia in some countries 'with all the characteristics of hybrid and special operations, i.e., planned, permanent, and systematic activities supported by state bodies, and the Republic of Croatia itself is, independently or as part of Euro-Atlantic integrations, exposed to forms of hybrid actions that contain elements of unconventional, asymmetric, and cyber actions aimed at exploiting vulnerabilities, weakening Croatian sovereignty and independence, undermining democratic values and freedoms, destabilizing state institutions, and damaging the reputation and influence of the Republic of Croatia'. Approximately, when someone speaks ill of Croatia, that is a hybrid threat, and participation in the Centre’s work brings greater international visibility to Croatia and involvement in assessing issues of great importance for the security and geopolitical position of Croatia, allowing for the incorporation of its own views on hybrid actions in Europe, with a special emphasis on the Southeast European area, which represents the area of closest Croatian interest. 'By actively participating in the Centre, the Republic of Croatia gains a stronger platform to point out the actors of hybrid actions in its immediate neighborhood, but also acquires invaluable experience for building capabilities and improving the national system for countering hybrid threats'.
