News
University researcher takes part in NATO's Hybrid Threat Experiment as the rule of law subject matter expert
Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:19:00 GMT
Dr. Sascha-Dominik Bachmann from Portsmouth Business School – School of Law , University of Portsmouth, has specialised expertise in the emerging field of global security and hybrid threats and recently took part in NATO’s hybrid threat experiment in Estonia and Belgium.
The threat of international terrorism represents one of the most severe “hybrid threats” which the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) attempts to counter as part of its comprehensive risk strategy. Hybrid threats are defined as threats which are of a multimodal nature and posed by adversaries who combine conventional and non-conventional means in order to achieve their objectives. Combating terrorism requires a holistic approach which combines hard kinetic security options as well as the options of criminal prosecutions and civil reparations through litigation.
Dr. Bachmann is a serving Lieutenant Colonel in the German Army Reserve and served on three NATO led peacekeeping operations prior to his employment with the University of Portsmouth. He participated in NATO’s Hybrid threat exercise as the Subject Matter Expert for the rule of law. The aim of these experiments was to investigate the utility and feasibility of the hybrid threat concept and to develop with other stakeholders possible NATO approaches to counter these threats. The experiments were funded by the NATO Allied Command Transformation supported by the US Joint Forces Command Joint Irregular Warfare Centre and the US National Defence University.
Dr. Bachmann’s new participation in NATO’s Joint Airpower Competency Centre’s project on “Air and Space Power beyond 2035” investigates the challenges and opportunities NATO’s air forces face in an evolving new strategic environment and what its impact on military assets and command and control may be.
Dr. Bachmann is a scholar of International Law, Human Rights and Armed Conflict and a member of the University's Centre for European and International Studies Research (CEISR). His research looks at the legal aspects of a number of areas, including:
- Kinetic and non-kinetic responses to Hybrid Threats.
- 1) 'kinetic' and alternative forms of deterrence for aiders and abettors of international terrorism in a hybrid threat context discussing impact and effect of ‘lethal’ and “non lethal” responses to Hybrid Threats.
- (2) Law of Armed Conflict – Asymmetric Conflict and its challenges for LOAC: new threats and the challenges to the existing body of International Law: a new set of rules needed?
- (3)Hybrid Threats, Cyber Warfare and NATO’s Comprehensive Approach for Countering 21st Century Threats – Mapping the New Frontier of Global Risk and Crisis Management
- (4) Targeted Killings as a Means of Countering Asymmetric Threats and Terrorism - Challenges and Opportunity.
- (5) Human Rights and LOAC: limitations to OPLAW through the ECHR
- (6) Civil Responsibility for acts of terrorism and present private legal actions against aiders and abettors of international terrorism .
Dr. Bachmann recently published two articles in the journal Amicus Curiae looking at hybrid threats. The first ‘Terrorism litigation as deterrence under international law – from protecting human rights to countering hybrid threats’ was published in issue 87 (autumn 2011). The second article ‘Hybrid threats, cyber warfare and NATO’s comprehensive approach for countering 21st century threats – mapping the new frontier of global risk and security management’ was published in issue 88 at the end of 2011.