Društvene mreže kao alati utjecaja u hibridnim sukobima
Authors:   , Mlinac Nikola 
Published: December 2022

The results of the research are presented in six main parts, as follows: “Information space and new patterns of data and information organization”, “Information strategies, social networks and influence in cyberspace”, “Hybrid conflicts and new instruments of power in cyberspace”, “New instruments of power: hybrid threats and hybrid operations”, “Hybrid operations in hybrid conflicts and hybrid warfare” and “New patterns of prevention and defence against hybrid threats”. In the first part, social networks are considered as powerful and effective means of communication and media for global, mass, networked, direct and anonymous communication, which are used in cyberspace to effectively impose ideas, ideologies and create and spread disinformation. The second part describes the adjustment of information strategies and information operations, and describes new patterns of planning, implementation and operation of psychological and media operations in which various actors (state, non-state and corporate) use artificial intelligence technologies on social networks for their own needs and interests. The third part of the dissertation presents the causes and occurrence of hybrid conflicts, their definitions and main features. Then, hybrid threats and hybrid operations of influence are presented, as new instruments of power in cyberspace that have emerged as a result of cyberspace misuse and artificial intelligence technologies on social networks. In this part of the research, we observe social networks as means of planning and conducting hybrid influence operations, which we consider here as the main information instrument of hybrid power, that achieves the strongest effects through cyberspace and serves to create strong and effective disinformation and other types of hybrid threats. The fifth part of the dissertation presents the results of research related to a representative sample of known and recognized examples of misuse of artificial intelligence technologies on social networks for planning and conducting hybrid impact operations. The primary scope of research relates to the hybrid influence operations carried out by the United States and the Russian Federation in different geographical areas and in different contexts. The sixth part of the dissertation proposes new patterns of prevention and defence against hybrid threats and operations, the creation of a new information strategy, and defence mechanisms and models. The end of this section points out the importance and the role of building digital and data sovereignty. The research confirmed the main hypothesis. Artificial intelligence and social networking technologies in hybrid conflicts are used as powerful and efficient tactical tools, with potential strategic consequences for the body of public knowledge of target audiences, in order to (re)shape it according to the needs of the information attacker. We have demonstrated that these are psychological operations of a strategic nature, in which artificial intelligence technologies and all social networks are used as dominant and effective tactical means, in a spatially and temporally unlimited range, to create disinformation and other various types of hybrid threats and constant (24/7) informationpsychological pressures directed at target audiences (individually, in groups or en masse) depending on the needs and goals of the information attacker.