The paper focus on the EU narrative on hybrid threats. Its main import is to think critically the rationale of this narrative and the effects of the constructed linkage between hybridity and security. The traditional threat of a military attack against a Member-State territory having been set aside, the European leaders rebuilt the security narratives based on multidimensional, transboundary problems that blur the traditional divides. In an unpredictable environment, threats are defined as complex, multifaceted and cross-border phenomena to be tackled by cross-sectorial and multilevel approaches. In this context, the building of EU security actorness is being sustained by the speech acts on the “comprehensive approach” and the security nexuses (internal-external, security-development, civilian-military, public-private) as means to prevent and fight against the threats. The end of the Cold War enabled the explicitness of EU as a security provider. The post 9/11 facilitated the reinforcement of previous trends (transnational threats, externalisation of ‘internal security’, cross pillarization) and the introduction of innovative tendencies (comprehensive approach, internalization of the Common Security and Defence Policy, interconnection of security nexuses). These trends have been intensified in recent years as demonstrated by the declarations and actions against the Daesh activity, radicalisation, foreign fighters, border insecurity and hybrid threats. The “2016 Joint Framework on countering hybrid threats – a European Union response” underlined the fluidity and flexibility of the conceptualisation given the evolving nature of those diverse and ever-changing threats, defined as “the mixture of coercive and subversive activity, conventional and unconventional methods (..), which can be used in a coordinated manner by state or non-state actors to achieve specific objectives while remaining below the threshold of formally declared warfare.” This catch-all concept justified the proposal of 22 areas for action ranging from raising awareness to building resilience. The “2018 Joint Communication - Increasing resilience and bolstering capabilities to address hybrid threats” reiterated the hybrid activities as a serious and acute threat to the EU and its Member States: multidimensional hybrid campaigns intended to damage and destabilise countries, “from cyber-attacks disrupting the economy and public services, through targeted disinformation campaigns to hostile military actions”. Resorting to the securitisation theoretical framework combined with a conceptual matrix on security actorness, it is argued that narrative on hybrid threats reflects a securitising move of the European actor explained by the convergence of opportunity (enlargement and deepening of security, prioritization of hybrid threats in a globalized world), capacity (legal, organic and operational capacity in the field of security), and (ambition to have a global) presence. The hybridity-security linkage underlying the logic of the narrative is the result of a co-constitutive adequacy: “more security” - appropriation of policies and instruments of a multifunctional actor for security purposes; “more actorness” - securitization of issues in order to promote the actor and its policies. The main contribution of the paper is to think critically on why and how security narratives, hybrid concepts and securitization dynamics serve convergent processes of gaining political and public space for legitimising policies and actions.
