Euractiv: Beijing and Kremlin's global hybrid war threatens Western democracy

Faced with threats from Beijing and the Kremlin, the West is losing ground because it reacts chaotically, without a common strategy and with fragile political systems, warns Chris Kremidas-Courtney, senior researcher at the European Policy Centre and associate researcher at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, in an article published on the Euractiv website. The expert claims that Russia and China are waging a global hybrid war, not to conquer territories, but to control critical infrastructure, information space, supply chains, cyber networks and public opinion.

According to the cited source, the authorities in Beijing and the Kremlin are acting in a coordinated manner in the long term, by securing national economies against international sanctions and by weaponizing the openness and indecision of Western democracies. According to the CSP expert, the two authoritarian political regimes are coordinating their actions in order to reshape the global order and are betting on the West's slowness and lack of unity, a bet that they frequently win.

Thus, while the Russian army is caught in the conflict in Ukraine, Moscow is expanding its information and cognitive warfare, now fueled by artificial intelligence, flooding the public space with fake news, manipulation and social polarization. China, in turn, is exercising its strategic patience by controlling global supply chains, gaining massive economic influence. At the same time, Chinese individuals and legal entities have been discovered exploring vulnerabilities in Western electrical networks, in order to prepare the ground for future attacks. Basically, the West is not only trading with Beijing, but also providing it with access to its vital infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the military and technical partnership between China and Russia is strengthening through joint projects such as submarines, heavy helicopters and missile attack warning systems. Their strategic coordination, based on five-year plans and annual consultations, goes beyond the fragmented responses of democracies.

In contrast, the European Union, while it has labeled Beijing a "systemic rival,” lacks centralized structures like the U.S. "China House,” which delays critical decision-making.

Moreover, Western economic sanctions are losing their effectiveness due to domestic political costs. Rising energy prices and blockages of essential imports are eroding public support, reducing deterrence. Meanwhile, China supplies Russia with strategic technologies and products, such as semiconductors and bearings, that allow Moscow to evade sanctions and continue the war in Ukraine.

The source cited also mentions one more aspect: southern Europe has become an ignored front line. According to Chris Kremidas-Courtney, Italy and Greece warn of the destabilization of North Africa by Turkey and Russia, the use of migration as a weapon, and the repositioning of the Russian naval fleet in the Mediterranean, but the ignoring of these calls by the European Union institutions increases the vulnerability of the entire continent.

In this context, the threats in question are no longer isolated phenomena, but elements of a coherent global strategy to consolidate authoritarian power. Therefore, the quoted expert believes that, in order to respond effectively, the West must develop permanent strategic capabilities, diversify its supply chains, invest in local production, and secure its critical infrastructure. Hybrid warfare must be treated with the same seriousness as the nuclear threat, through crisis scenarios, joint exercises, and rapid reaction mechanisms involving the civilian and military sectors.

When acting as one, the West can effectively counter authoritarian powers, as it has done in the past, not just through military force, but through flexibility, principle and cohesion. This requires clarity, institutional reform, strategic foresight and the political will to act before the next crisis hits.