Thank you very much for that question.
The threat of hybrid warfare, as I said, is that it erases the traditional distinction between war and peace, and leads us into a world where everything is constantly contested, where domestic security is becoming as strategically important as the traditional defence of our borders. I am referring to the security of populations and critical infrastructures, the ability of our societies to function well, and the ability of people to lead their lives normally without being subject to threats.
In hybrid warfare, the focal point of defence shifts in a sense from our territory or borders to our populations. It even affect what is on the minds of our citizens. How do they perceive reality? What messages seem most credible to them? What confidence do they have in their leaders' abilities? In the past, NATO's role was fairly simple: it was simply to physically defend our borders. It now has a dual role. It must first defend our borders, which is still important, in particular with the growth of Russian forces in Eastern Europe. That is why you currently have nearly 500 Canadian soldiers deployed in Latvia. At the same time, we must become increasingly competent in analyzing threats to the smooth functioning of our societies.
What do we have to do? We are currently pursuing six avenues.
The first thing is intelligence. How can we better anticipate and detect this kind of hybrid threat and make a distinction between a spontaneous attack and a deliberately orchestrated attack? How can we more quickly and more accurately identify and define threats in order to respond? If we spend months talking just to conclude that something that walks like a duck and talks like a duck is in fact a duck, we will be overtaken by the speed of events. So the first thing is to improve our anticipatory intelligence capabilities.
The second is crisis management. Can we make decisions quickly, in real time? Intelligence is very important, but do we have a series of special intervention measures planned in the event of crisis? How can we expand the tool box of measures we can take? As I said, there are diplomatic measures. For example, you learned this week of the expulsion of more than 100 Russian diplomats by various countries to protest the use of chemical weapons in Salisbury, England. So economic measures are needed, as well as a whole series of other measures that allow for a flexible response. At NATO, if we stick to the wording of article 5 of the treaty, we do of course have to wait for an actual war to be declared before we respond. So we need to increase the flexibility of our response options.
Third is strategic communication. Can we more effectively identify fake news and information operations and respond to them?
Next is the resilience of our infrastructures. How can we make our nuclear plants, electrical systems, and communications systems more resistant? That is also very important.
Finally, how can we be more effective in cyberspace and how can we learn from our partners? Take a country like Ukraine, which is an important partner to NATO. A lot hybrid tactics are used against that country. We have to help Ukraine, but at the same time learn from its experiences in order to prevent the same thing from happening to us.