Alliance strikes back: using multi domain operations to counter Russian hybrid warfare in the Baltics.

As a result of the space age and the Information Revolution, warfare is extending to new domains and being fought with new emerging technologies. Meanwhile, a resurgent Russia has been using hybrid warfare—a combination of non-violent subversion, covert violent action, and conventional military forces—to pursue its national interests outside of its borders. NATO's most acute challenge is how best to innovate and adapt in order to deliver collective security to the Baltic States. This paper will explore whether or not NATO should adopt the new U.S. Multi Domain Operations concept. This paper concludes that, while the Multi Domain Operations concept could counter, if not defeat, Russian hybrid warfare in the Baltics, that NATO should not adopt the concept because of low suitability. Of particular concern is the concept's lack of focus on preventing Russia using local populations as a tool of destabilization, the time it will likely take to penetrate Russian A2/AD systems using the 'stimulate-see-strike' process, and the detrimental effect that synchronizing actions across domains could have on one of NATO's key overmatch capabilities—the Mission Command philosophy.