Open access
Grzegorz TUTAK1, Jan GONDEK2
Publication language: English
Journal article
Transformations No. 4 (119) 2023, Publication date: 31 December 2023
Keywords: instrumentalisation, hybrid action, immigration, illegal migration
Abstract Hybrid threats within the framework of modern conflicts have become an enduring element that determines the security formation of modern states. Previous elements of war or conflict are now being combined with new forms of warfare. The migratory pressure on the border between Poland and Belarus inspired by the Lukashenko regime is a good example of hybrid action. The instrumental use of migrants has become a tool for the Lukashenko regime to exert influence and achieve specific goals on Poland and the European Union. Instrumentalisation has resulted in migrants' attempts to illegally cross state borders. Migration pres-sure became an element of the information warfare by Alexander Lukashenko aimed at discrediting Poland and the European Union in the international arena. The aim of this article is to characterise the instrumental use of migrants as a hybrid action. This paper discusses both the theoretical aspects of hybrid conflicts, but also attempts to characterise the instrumentalisation of migration on the example of the Polish-Belarusian border.
Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Political Science and Public Administration, Department of Theory of Politics and Eastern Studies
ORCID: grzegorz.tutak@kul.pl
E-mail: 0000-0001-6444-6990
Department of Economic and Digital Sociology, Institute of Sociological Sciences, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland
ORCID: jan.gondek@kul.pl
E-mail: 0000-0003-4705-0446