Dr Johnson examines the function of strategy against the phenomenon of hybrid confrontation and coercion, that is, situations where there is aggression and military threat but where hostilities have not been declared. Specifically, it analyses the execution of hybrid strategy and it counter-strategies. First, it evaluates the etymology of the term, the anxieties that it has caused in the West, and its failures or limitations. Second, it examines the value of hybrid strategy, and lays out the counter-strategy, mapping these against the utility of force.