Public governance under conditions of hybrid warfare: institutional mechanisms and digital tools.

doi:10.26565/1992-2337-2025-2-14

Vyacheslav Dziundziuk Education and Research Institute of Public Administration of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, 4 Svobody Sq., Kharkiv, 61022, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0622-2600
Oleksandr Udovenko Land Forces of Ukraine https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7845-0455

DOI: https://doi.org/10.26565/1992-2337-2025-2-14

Keywords: hybrid warfare, public administration, national security, institutional mechanisms, information technology digitalization, digital tools, cybersecurity, information security, information technology resilience

Abstract

The article presents an in-depth scientific analysis of institutional mechanisms and digital tools for public governance under hybrid warfare conditions as a fundamentally novel phenomenon of contemporary geopolitical confrontations, posing unprecedented challenges to established paradigms of state administration, national security, and international stability. The study substantiates that hybrid aggression as a strategic behavioral model of revisionist states fundamentally transforms the threat landscape by blurring traditional distinctions between war and peace, combatants and civilians, domestic and external threats, physical and informational battlespaces – thus demanding a corresponding transformation not only of security structures but of the entire architecture of public governance. Through comparative analysis of institutional solutions adopted by leading democracies – the United States, Great Britain, Finland, Estonia, and EU institutions – the article systematizes the organizational forms and functional models of specialized structures for coordinating responses to hybrid threats, defining the configuration of their mandates, resource provisioning, and interaction mechanisms. The essential characteristics of the whole-of-government principle are revealed as the conceptual foundation of effective public governance under hybrid conflicts, encompassing horizontal integration of security, defense, intelligence, law enforcement, and civilian structures into a single coherent system of threat detection and neutralization. The role of digital technologies in qualitatively expanding state capacity to withstand disinformation campaigns, cyber aggression, and hybrid influence operations is investigated. The legal frameworks for regulating state actions in cyberspace and the information environment are analyzed in light of the necessity to balance response effectiveness with adherence to the rule of law. Mechanisms for engaging the private sector and civil society institutions in the hybrid threat response system through public-private partnerships and shared intelligence exchange platforms are highlighted. Ukraine’s unique experience in forming an adaptive institutional architecture for public governance under conditions of full-scale armed aggression is summarized, and prospective directions for improving the system of countering hybrid threats are identified.

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Author Biographies

Vyacheslav Dziundziuk, Education and Research Institute of Public Administration of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, 4 Svobody Sq., Kharkiv, 61022, Ukraine

Doctor of Science in Public Administration, Full Professor, Head the Public Policy Department

Oleksandr Udovenko, Land Forces of Ukraine

Candidate of Science in Law, Colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Unit Commander

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