Grey zone conflict / hybrid warfare: How does it relate to negotiation, and to conflict management throughout the West?

Project Seshat (2019-2023) was a multinational effort to study and respond to the rising threats of “hybrid warfare” or “grey zone conflict” now targeting all democracies. These are proliferating, but as yet are poorly understood. ​Project Seshat included approximately fifty conflict management and security experts from many walks of life, and focused particularly on how to defend entities other than national governments: corporations, universities, hospitals, NGOs, think-tanks, municipalities and more. After four years of study and experimentation (with publications noted below), the project concluded that it was time to create a more sustainable successor, an effort that is now under way with New York’s Cardozo Law School as the institutional host.  

Chris Honeyman served as Project Seshat’s Principal Investigator and chaired the steering committee. He has also been asked to advise the group working to create Project Seshat’s successor. Further background can be found at Project Seshat.  

New: Chris Honeyman is now leading a “spinoff” effort to develop new tools for combating disinformation, with the assistance of a small group of expert advisors. The details are not yet public.

Major publications

Forthcoming in 2025: Now in press at DRI Press, Hybrid Warfare: A Collection of Scenarios, edited by Adrian Borbély, will be the first teaching casebook on hybrid warfare. It is based in test cases developed by five interdisciplinary Project Seshat teams. Further details will be announced upon publication.

Also in 2025: “A New Management System, for a New Type of Conflict? Singapore’s Possible Role in Managing Grey Zone Conflict in International Commerce.” This article, by Chris Honeyman and Rachel Tan, was published in the July 2025 issue of Australia’s Dispute Resolution Review. In PDF at Honeyman & Tan 2025

Negotiation Strategies for War by Other Means.