Hybrid Threats and Hybrid Truth: Towards a Criminology of Dark Disorder

Dr. Willem de Lint

Amongst governments, there is a growing interest in hybrid threats. Adopted from military discourse (hybrid war), a hybrid threat discourse pushes civil society issues including public order, crime control and civic participation under a military/national security template. In this paper I explore security ordering through hybrid threat representations based primarily on a critical political reading of the reports, strategic analysis and working papers of the European Centre for Countering Hybrid Threats (HybridCoE). In this, I am concerned with what I refer to as dark disorder. I ask the question, are attrib-utions of the strength, vitality, scale, and suitability of targets made by agents under the auspices of hybrid threat centres designations that as much discover as project dark disorder? I argue that a more nuanced understand-ing of hybrid threat may be found by situating analysis within a critical societal security discourse.