Photo By Karlheinz Wedhorn | Experts convene at the Marshall Center to discuss how adversaries exploit legal gray...... read more read more
Experts convened at the Marshall Center to discuss how adversaries exploit legal gray zones in space, cyberspace, and contested waters as part of the Seminar on Irregular Warfare/Hybrid Threats in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on June 12, 2025.
According to von der Dunk, professor of space law at the University of Nebraska, while space remains governed by international treaties, there are few legal limits on close-proximity operations or military posturing in orbit.
“The law hasn’t caught up with the realities of military operations in orbit,” he said.
From orbital maneuvers to maritime disputes, the panel – including von der Dunk, US Navy Cmdr. Kathy Paradis, Marshall Center military professor, and Jyunyi Lee, Ph.D., associate research fellow at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research – underscored how hybrid actors twist legal norms to gain strategic advantage, often below the threshold of war.
“Hybrid threats exploit the seams in our legal frameworks,” Paradis said. “That’s where confusion, delay, and deniability take root.”
Paradis further emphasized the importance of sound policy and operational coordination to defend against lawfare, cyber-enabled disinformation and coercive ambiguity.
“Hybrid threats exploit the seams in our legal frameworks, especially when jurisdiction, enforcement, and attribution are unclear,” she said.
Lee shared a regional perspective on Chinese legal warfare, illustrating how Beijing uses reinterpretation of international law to undermine sovereignty in the Taiwan Strait and beyond.
Altogether, the panel revealed how legal manipulation is becoming a strategic tool in hybrid competition, requiring updated legal norms, strategic foresight, and multilateral cooperation.
The Marshall Center’s 2025 SIWHT is bringing together 90 practitioners from 66 countries to strengthen national, military, and allied efforts to counter hybrid threats by building partner capacity.
| Date Taken: | 06.12.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.24.2025 08:11 |
| Story ID: | 501299 |
| Location: | DE |
| Web Views: | 23 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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