The Project

The project addresses the reality of Hybrid Threats (HTs), one of the key challenges to the security of democratic States in Europe and in the Atlantic Region. HTs exploit their targets’ vulnerabilities with a view to destabilizing them. Both military and non-military means, kinetic and cyber operations, as well as overt or covert actions may be included in the definition of HTs. The term, firstly employed by NATO and then adopted by the EU, has been gaining momentum after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict.
In crafting their reactions to HTs, democratic States have to strike a delicate balance with competing values, in keeping with international and domestic obligations. As a matter of fact, prevention, mitigation and recovery from HTs risk fueling reactions that may compromise fundamental values of democracies (such as the rule of law and respect of fundamental rights), leading to the very ‘destabilization’ that was the ultimate aim of HTs.

This underscores the importance of exploring the nexus between HTs and ‘resilient’ democracies, which is absent in the Italian legal debate. The project’s final aim is to fill this gap.

The project’s goals are:

– Identifying the nature and the features of HTs (sources; actors; tools; domains; activities) focusing on sensitive areas (disinformation and propaganda; migration flows)
– Exploring the international and European legal toolkits that States can activate to prevent, mitigate and recover from HTs
– Analyzing European States’ domestic legislation that is relevant in the contrast of HTs, with a specific focus on Italy

The two-year project has been funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR), Decree No. 1313 of August 7, 2023, within the program “PRIN 2022 PNRR” (Project of Relevant National Interest & National Recovery and Resilience Plan) – “Under 40” (reserved for young Principal Investigators) & “Linea Sud” (dedicated to research teams located in universities of Southern Italy).