When All You Have is a Hammer: Lessons from the Americas on Securitizing State Responses to Hybrid Threats

Abstract This article engages linkages between institutional weakness, corruption, and criminality in the Americas, with a focus on an increasing dependence on military actors for everyday governance. It provides lessons learned from the Latin America region on how, in a time of upheaval, many things are being weaponized and militarized (hybrid warfare) to provide security. It examines the concept of ‘multidimensional security’, coined by the Organization of American States (OAS) just over twenty years ago, against a backdrop of significant regional violence and institutional weaknesses. It identifies issues with the norm of civilian control of armed forces – a healthy byproduct of democratization in the post-Cold War era – which has catalysed a largely unforeseen governance risk: political leaders’ temptation to leverage military capacities to score quick ‘wins’ often come at the cost of other state sectors’ maturation, the politicization of armed forces, and potentially even citizen confidence in democratic ideals. The article concludes with a series of recommendations and lessons learned on Latin America’s multidimensional security concept for European nations, particular smaller states, on how to deal with contemporary hybrid threats.