Featuring: Marek Kohv, Dr Ivan U. K. Klyszcz (both ICDS), Dr Koichiro Komiyama (Keio Research Institute), Dr Tomoko Nagasako (Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA))
Moderated by: Tauno Tõhk (ICDS)
On 11 December, the ICDS hosted a webinar featuring top experts from Estonia and Japan to discuss grey zone activities in the Nordic-Baltic region and Japan.
The rise of global geopolitical competition among leading states requires policy makers, analysts, and stakeholders to better understand some of the instruments used in the growing rivalries among major powers. Several states are driven by a revisionist foreign policy and thus engage global politics – among other ways – by using unconventional means. These means are sometimes called ‘grey zone activities’ or ‘hybrid warfare’, and these refer to coercive actions shy of armed conflict but beyond normal state-to-state relations. These activities form a toolkit for statecraft that includes disinformation campaigns, cyber operations, political and commercial coercion, informational warfare, among other means. These grey zone activities have an impact on strategically important diplomatic, geopolitical, and economic domains, so to understand them is a priority.
Estonia and Japan share the common challenge of large revisionist neighbours who engage in influence operations and hybrid warfare, undermining the security of their respective regions. Therefore, an exchange among experts can lead to new insights for regional security.
The webinar touched on various questions including:
What are the threats ‘in the grey zone’ for the Estonia and Japan?
What is the relevance of the cyber domain when it comes to security ‘in the grey zone’?
What is the role of revisionist states in shaping grey zone threats for Estonia and Japan? What are the influence operations waged by China and Russia?
What are the experiences of Estonia and Japan in countering grey zone activities? What similarities and differences can be found?
