Fourth generation warfare

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Fourth generation warfare (4GW) is a concept in American military doctrine defined in 1989 by a team of American analysts, including William S. Lind, used to describe warfare's return to a decentralized form. In terms of generational modern warfare, the fourth generation signifies the nation states' loss of their monopoly on combat forces, returning in a sense to the uncontrolled combat of pre-modern times. The simplest definition includes any war in which one of the major participants is not a state but rather a violent ideological network. Fourth Generation wars are characterized by a blurring of the lines between war and politics, soldier and civilian, peace and conflict, battlefield and safety. While this term is similar to terrorism and asymmetric warfare, it is much narrower. Classical examples, such as the slave uprising under Spartacus or the assassination of Julius Caesar by the Roman senate, predate the modern concept of warfare and are examples of the type of combat modern warfare sought to eliminate. As such, fourth generation warfare uses classical tactics—tactics deemed unacceptable by the preceding generations—to weaken the technologically advantaged opponent's will to win.

1 History
2 Elements
3 Examples
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

The concept was first described by the authors William S. Lind, Colonel Keith Nightengale (USA), Captain John F. Schmitt (USMC), Colonel Joseph W. Sutton (USA), and Lieutenant Colonel Gary I. Wilson (USMCR) in a 1989 Marine Corps Gazette article entitled “The Changing Face of War: Into the Fourth Generation”.

The generations of warfare described by these authors are:

1st Generation: tactics of line and column; which developed in the age of the smoothbore musket.

2nd Generation: tactics of linear fire and movement, with reliance on indirect fire.

3rd Generation: tactics of infiltration to bypass and collapse the enemy's combat forces rather than seeking to close with and destroy them; and defense in depth.

The use of fourth generation warfare can be traced to the post-World War II Cold War period, as superpowers and major powers attempted to retain their grip on colonies and captured territories. Unable to withstand direct combat against bombers, tanks, and machine guns, non-state entities used tactics of secrecy, terror, and confusion to overcome the technological gap. Mao's concept of the People's war and Ho Chi Minh's conduct in the Indochina Wars are contemporary examples of 4GW.

Fourth Generation warfare has often involved an insurgent group or non-state entity trying to implement their own government or reestablish an old government over the current ruling power. However, a fourth generation war is most successful when the non-state entity does not attempt, at least in the short term, to impose its own rule, but tries simply to disorganize and delegitimize the state in which the warfare takes place. The aim is to force the state adversary to expend manpower and money in an attempt to establish order, ideally in such a highhanded way that it merely increases disorder, until the state surrenders or withdraws. Fourth generation war could be said to be the ultimate strategy of scorched earth, leaving nothing for the occupier to occupy. Speaking figuratively, the non-state adversary, not being able to expel the invader from his home, tries to bring it down on both their heads, leaving the invader no choice but to leave the ruins alone.

Fourth Generation Warfare is often seen in conflicts involving failed states and civil wars, particularly in conflicts involving non-state actors, intractable ethnic or religious issues, or gross conventional military disparities. Many of these conflicts occur in the geographic area described by author Thomas Barnett as the Non-Integrating Gap, fought by countries from the globalised Functioning Core.

[edit] Elements

Fourth Generation Warfare is defined as conflicts which involve the following elements:

High Technology
Terrorism
A non-national or transnational base
A direct attack on the enemy's culture
Highly sophisticated psychological warfare, especially through manipulation of the media

[edit] Examples

[edit] See also

General

Military operations other than war - concept that encompass the use of military capabilities across the range of military operations short of war.
Campaign desk - used by officers and their staffs in rear areas during a military campaign.
Military strategy - collective name for planning the conduct of warfare.
War cycles - the theory that wars happen in cycles.