The Russia connectionCold War-era KGB “active measures” and the Kremlin’s contemporary way of war
Bob Seely, a Conservative MP for the Isle of Wight and a Russia researcher, has just published the first comprehensive definition of the nature of modern Russian warfare. The paper draws a direct comparison between Cold War-era KGB “Active Measures” and the aggression of Putin’s Russia. “From fake news aimed at Europe to the propaganda of RT, and from the occupation of Crimea to the streets of Salisbury, Russia is waging a very modern kind of conflict on the West – as well as on the Russian people themselves,” Seely said.
Bob Seely, a Conservative MP for the Isle of Wight, has just published the first comprehensive definition of the nature of modern Russian warfare.
The paper, A Definition of Contemporary Russian Conflict: How Does the Kremlin Wage War?, published by the Russia and Eurasia Studies Center at the Henry Jackson Society, draws a direct comparison between Cold War-era KGB “Active Measures” and the aggression of Putin’s Russia.
Seely warns that the West faces a new kind of conflict — one in which military and non-military tools are combined in a dynamic, efficient, and integrated way to achieve political aims. The Henry Jackson Society says that until now, there has been no common agreement on what we are fighting – but Seely offers a comprehensive definition.
In his paper, the Conservative MP and Russia researcher offers the term “Contemporary Russian Conflict” to describe the covert and overt forms of malign influence used by the Kremlin.
In this coordinated approach to warfare, at least fifty tools of state power are used, grouped into seven elements: Political Conflict; Culture and Governance; Economics and Energy; Military Power; Diplomacy and Public Outreach; and Information and Narrative Warfare. At the heart of this is the seventh element: Command and Control.
This model is less a military art so much as a strategic one, in which all the tools of national power are woven together. Armed conflict – whether overt, covert, or via proxy forces – is but one part of a full spectrum of tools used in the pursuit of political aims. The role of the Armed Forces in this definition is supporting, not supported – used to bolster the wider political conflict being waged.
