The EU Facing “Hybrid Threat” Challenges course

The European Security and Defence College (ESDC) had the honour of co-organising the ‘EU Facing “Hybrid Threat” Challenges’ course together with the French Institute for Advanced Studies in National Defence Studies (IHEDN).

  Held in Paris between 12 and 14 December 2023, the course was a great success, with active participation and excellent outcomes. The aim of the course was to prepare civil servants and military officers from EU Member States and EU institutions and agencies to effectively take positions on security policies, strategies and missions/operations. The course dealt with diplomatic, institutional, legal and operational issues related to hybrid threats and security issues at strategic level, enabling participants to form a broad overview of hybrid threat challenges.

The first day of the course focused on the definition and nature of the threat and its multidimensionality, with a specific focus on hybrid threats in the cyberspace and maritime domains, information manipulation and disinformation.

The second day of the course began with a discussion on the link between space and hybrid threats and on the EU instruments, policies and actions to counter hybrid threats. The day continued by highlighting the EU policies and action to counter foreign interference and information manipulation and concluded by presenting the EU’s cooperation with international organisations.

The third and last day of the course focused on emerging hybrid threat challenges.

We would like to thank all the keynote speakers for their excellent contributions and input, and for the very high quality of their speeches and lectures.

The content of the presentations and the extremely relevant topics on current and future hybrid threat challenges triggered thought-provoking and rewarding discussions between the participants and the experts.

We would like to thank all 24 participants for their confidence in the ESDC, and we will do our utmost to continue providing high-quality training.