Total Defence Against Hybrid Threats

“Guns and tanks and planes are nothing unless there is a solid spirit, a solid heart, and great productiveness behind it.”

―General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Address to Economic Club of New York, 20 November 1946

Speakers

Fei-fan Lin

Deputy Secretary-General of the National Security Council of Taiwan

Marta Kepe

Senior Defence Analyst at RAND

Minna Ålander

Analyst at the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies

Jakob Hallgren

Director of Swedish Institute of International Affairs

Moderator

Teri Schultz

Freelance NATO/EU reporter for NPR and DW

Security threats have long become multi-domain and all-encompassing, and so should be our defence strategies. From the Nordic-Baltic region to Taiwan, nations have adopted integrated defence concepts. Total defence and overall defence, whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches, or resilience building more broadly—the name may vary from country to country, and so may the implementations. Yet, total defence is critical to protecting against hybrid, information, irregular, or cognitive warfare, as well as any other security crises, attacks, and incursions that fall short of direct military aggression. What should the governments do to ensure that the nation is prepared for crises? Is there a total defence model that can be adopted from one country into another? How similar are the total defence needs in Europe and in Asia-Pacific?