To help counter hybrid threats and support policymakers in defending their democratic societies, Hybrid CoE and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre have constructed a model suggesting a framework for rethinking resilience comprehensively. The Comprehensive Resilience Ecosystem (or CORE) model presented in this joint report highlights two factors when we think about a response: Firstly, open societies are ever more connected within and between one another. Secondly, any response should involve the whole of society to counter threats effectively. To this end, the presented model addresses different “spaces” of society (governance, civic, and services), as well as different “levels” (international, national, and local) and, most importantly, their mutual interactions.

This Hybrid CoE Paper looks at how Russia’s military aggression in Europe has increased the importance of the Arctic – especially the European High North – on the international security agenda. In the Arctic, the potential for conflict escalation relates to hybrid threat operations.