Hybrid threats represent one of the defining security challenges facing the European Union and its partners, operating below the threshold of conventional armed conflict while exploiting vulnerabilities across democratic institutions, digital environments, public trust, and societal resilience. This latest ENACT Flash Report examines the evolving role of law enforcement agencies in countering hybrid threats and was prepared as a complementary report to CEPOL’s 2026 Research Week on tackling hybrid threats.
The report highlights how hybrid activities increasingly blur the boundaries between internal and external security, placing law enforcement agencies in a more strategic position within national and European resilience ecosystems. It identifies key gaps, including limited preventive capacities, insufficient societal awareness, weak institutional coordination, inadequate situational awareness, and the need to recognise emerging technologies as potential tools for hybrid threats. Overall, the report argues for the development of the “farsighted policeman”: a law enforcement actor able to anticipate, interpret, mitigate and respond to complex multi-domain threats through stronger foresight, intelligence sharing, cross-border cooperation, training, democratic safeguards, and whole-of-society resilience.
Read the report: Law Enforcement’s Role in Countering Hybrid Threats
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