How the notion of “hybrid threat” is reshaping security. The case of migration and disinformation within the EU and its implications for the rule of law and democracy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32091/RIID0236Keywords:
Hybrid threats, Security Union, Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, Disinformation, Migration, SecuritisationAbstract
This article examines the emergence of the concept of “hybrid threats” in EU security policy, and its implications for fundamental principles of the rule of law and democracy. It discusses these dynamics by focusing on two exemplary phenomena that have been framed as “hybrid threats”: migration and disinformation. The article’s main argument is that characterising these phenomena as “hybrid threats” leads to an increased intertwining of civil and military, internal and external dimensions of security, resulting in a “hybridisation” of security policies. Ultimately, this shifts the emphasis of securitisation towards the extreme pole of “existential threats”. This places significant pressure on the fundamental principles of the rule of law, such as respect for fundamental rights and judicial control over executive powers, and also undermines democratic participation and the integrity of public discourse.
References
L. Amoore (2011), Data Derivatives: On the Emergence of a Security Risk Calculus for Our Times, in “Theory, Culture & Society”, vol. 28, 2011
H. Arendt (1964/2013), Wahrheit und Lüge in der Politik: Zwei Essays, Piper Taschenbuch, 2013
E. Bayamlıoğlu, R. Leenes (2018), The ‘rule of law’ implications of data-driven decision-making: a techno-regulatory perspective, in “Law, Innovation and Technology”, vol. 10, 2018
R. Bellanova, M. de Goede (2020), The Algorithmic Regulation of Security: An Infrastructural Perspective, in “Regulation & Governance”, 2020
D. Bigo (2002), Security and Immigration: Toward a Critique of the Governmentality of Unease, in “Alternatives 27”, Special Issue, 2002
D. Bigo (2000), When two become one: Internal and external securitisations in Europe, in “International Relations Theory and the Politics of European Integration”, Routledge, 2000
K. Bleyer-Simon, M.A. Horowitz, M. Botan et al. (2025), How Is Disinformation Addressed in the Member States of the European Union? – 27 Country Cases, in “European Digital Media Observatory”, 2025
J. Bücker, L.S. Möller (2025), Beyond Derogation: Context-Driven Interpretation of Migrants’ Rights and the Risks of Circumventing Article 15 ECHR, in “Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law & International Law (MPIL) Research Paper”, vol. 6, 2025
B. Buzan, O. Wæver (2003), Regions and Powers: The Structure of International Security, Cambridge University Press, 2003
A. Casero-Ripollés, J. Tuñón, L. Bouza-García (2023), The European Approach to Online Disinformation: Geopolitical and Regulatory Dissonance, in “Humanities and Social Sciences Communications”, vol. 10, 2023
J. De Coninck (2023), Shielding Frontex, in “Verfassungsblog”, September 2023
H. de Waele (2017), Entrenching the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. Questions of institutional governance and judicial control, in M. Fletcher, E. Herlin-Karnell, C. Matera (eds.), “The European Union as an Area of Freedom, Security and Justice”, Routledge, 2017
M. den Boer (2008), Immigration and its Effect on the Security Discourse in Europe: Time for Demystification, in “Amsterdam Law Forum”, vol. 1, 2008, n. 1
A.M. Eklund (2022), Frontex and ‘Algorithmic Discretion’ (Part I): The ETIAS Screening Rules and the Principle of Legality, in “Verfassungsblog”, September, 2023
S. Ellebrecht (2020), Mediated Bordering: EUROSUR, the Refugee Boat, and the Construction of an External EU Border, transcript publishing, 2020
European Commission (Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology) (2018), A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Disinformation: Report of the Independent High Level Group on Fake News and Online Disinformation, Publications Office, 2018
B. Frischmann, E. Selinger (2018), Re-Engineering Humanity, Cambridge University Press, 2018
G. Giannopoulos, H. Smith, M. Theocharidou (2021), The Landscape of Hybrid Threats: A Conceptual Model (Public Version), Publications Office of the European Union, 2021
M. Hildebrandt (2018), Algorithmic regulation and the rule of law, in “Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences”, vol. 376, 2018
M. Hildebrandt (2016), Law as Information in the Era of Data‐Driven Agency, in “The Modern Law Review”, vol. 79, 2016, n. 1
M. Hildebrandt, A. Rouvroy (eds.) (2011), Law, Human Agency and Autonomic Computing: The Philosophy of Law Meets the Philosophy of Technology, Routledge, 2011
R.L. Holzhacker, P. Luif (2014), Introduction: Freedom, Security and Justice after Lisbon, in Id. (eds.), “Freedom, Security, and Justice in the European Union: Internal and External Dimensions of Increased Cooperation after the Lisbon Treaty”, Springer, 2014
C. Kaunert, S. Léonard (2023), Collective securitization and crisification of EU policy change two decades of EU counterterrorism policy, Routledge, 2023
M. Leese (2014), The new profiling: Algorithms, black boxes, and the failure of anti-discriminatory safeguards in the European Union, in “Security Dialogue”, vol. 45, 2014, n. 5
S. Léonard (2010), EU border security and migration into the European Union: FRONTEX and securitisation through practices, in “European Security”, vol. 19, 2010, n. 2
S. Léonard, C. Kaunert (2022), The securitisation of migration in the European Union: Frontex and its evolving security practices, in “Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies”, vol. 48, 2022, n. 6
S. Lucarelli, J. Sperling, M. Webber (eds.) (2020), Collective Securitisation and Security Governance in the European Union, Routledge, 2020
V. Mitsilegas (2020), The Preventive Turn in European Security Policy: Towards a Rule of Law Crisis?, in F. Bignami (ed.), “EU Law in Populist Times: Crises and Prospects”, Cambridge University Press, 2020
V. Mitsilegas (2015), The Transformation of Privacy in an Era of Pre-emptive Surveillance, in “Tilburg Law Review”, vol. 20, 2015, n. 1
J. Monar (2001), The Dynamics of Justice and Home Affairs: Laboratories, Driving Factors and Costs, in “JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies”, vol. 39, 2001, n. 4
C. O’Neil (2016), Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, Crown Publishers, 2016
E. Orrù (2022-a), Freedom, security and justice in the European Union: a short genealogy of the “Security Union”, in “Eunomia. Rivista di studi su pace e diritti umani”, 2022, n. 1
E. Orrù (2022-b), Legittimità e digitalizzazione. Per una critica realistica delle politiche di sicurezza dell’Unione europea, Wolters Kluwer, 2022
E. Orrù (2022-c), The European PNR Directive as an Instance of Pre-Emptive, Risk-Based Algorithmic Security and Its Implications for the Regulatory Framework, in “Information Polity”, vol. 27, 2022, n. 2
E. Orrù (2021), Legitimität, Sicherheit, Autonomie. Eine philosophische Analyse der EU-Sicherheitspolitik im Kontext der Digitalisierung, Nomos, 2021
S. Peers (2017), The rise and fall of EU justice and home affairs law, in M. Fletcher, E. Herlin-Karnell, C. Matera (eds.), “The European Union as an Area of Freedom, Security and Justice”, Routledge, 2017
R. Poscher (2016), Tendencies in Public Civil Security Law, in “European Journal for Security Research”, vol. 1, 2016
J. Raz (1977), The rule of law and its virtue, in “Law Quarterly Review”, vol. 93, 1977
A. Sarantaki (2023), Frontex and the rising of a new border control culture in Europe, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2023
E. Sason, C. Monti, P. Olivares-Martinez (2025), Security – A Firm Construct or an Undetermined Concept?, in “eucrim”, 2025, n. 1
J. Sperling, M. Webber (2017), NATO and the Ukraine Crisis: Collective Securitisation, in “European Journal of International Security”, vol. 2, 2017, n. 1
C. Thönnes, N. Vavoula (2023), Automated Predictive Threat Detection after Ligue Des Droits Humains: Implications for ETIAS and CSAM (Part II), in “Verfassungsblog”, 2023
L. Ulbricht (2018), When Big Data Meet Securitization. Algorithmic Regulation with Passenger Name Records, in “European Journal for Security Research”, vol. 3, 2018
K. Yeung (2018), Algorithmic Regulation: A Critical Interrogation, in “Regulation & Governance”, vol. 12, 2018
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Rivista italiana di informatica e diritto
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
rivistariidATigsg.cnr.it