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A sophisticated drone discovered inside a German airport. An aircraft colliding with a mysterious object near the same airport. Interference in upcoming state elections. Foreign agents scoping out a little-known defense CEO.

Germany has been the target of a wide range of mysterious activities over the last couple of months—the type that analysts usually label as “gray-zone” (my preferred term) or “hybrid” warfare. Hybrid threats, in Frank Hoffmann’s classic definition, “incorporate a full range of different modes of warfare including conventional capabilities, irregular tactics and formations, terrorist acts including indiscriminate violence and coercion, and criminal disorder.”

A sophisticated drone discovered inside a German airport. An aircraft colliding with a mysterious object near the same airport. Interference in upcoming state elections. Foreign agents scoping out a little-known defense CEO.

Germany has been the target of a wide range of mysterious activities over the last couple of months—the type that analysts usually label as “gray-zone” (my preferred term) or “hybrid” warfare. Hybrid threats, in Frank Hoffmann’s classic definition, “incorporate a full range of different modes of warfare including conventional capabilities, irregular tactics and formations, terrorist acts including indiscriminate violence and coercion, and criminal disorder.”

Gray-zone acts, by contrast, involve no conventional military element; to use military-wonk parlance, they’re not kinetic. In the recent string of such acts in Germany, the very likely culprit is Russia, which has a history of using these techniques against European........

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