Fourth-generation warfare
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Fourth-generation warfare (4GW) is conflict characterized by a blurring of the lines between war and politics, combatants and civilians.
The term was first used in 1980 by a team of United States analysts, including paleoconservative William S. Lind, 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 near-monopoly on combat forces, returning to modes of conflict common in pre-modern times.
The simplest definition includes any war in which one of the major participants is not a state but rather a violent non-state actor. Classical examples of this type of conflict, such as the slave uprising under Spartacus, predate the modern concept of warfare.
Examples
- The Troubles
- Peninsular War, particularly the use of autonomous guerrilla groups. Note: first use of the word 'guerrilla', meaning 'Little War'.
- Libyan Civil War
- Syrian civil war, namely used by non-state actors against government forces.
- Taliban insurgency
- Iraqi insurgency
- Rwandan war, used by Rwandan forces and community based Mai-Mai militia groups.
- Egyptian Crisis (2011–14)
- Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation
- Russian military intervention in Ukraine (2014–present)
See also
- Asymmetric warfare
- CIA's Special Activities Division
- DIA's Defense Clandestine Service
- Civilian casualty ratio
- Counter-insurgency
- Cyberwarfare
- Divide and rule
- H. John Poole – writer on 4GW topics
- Irregular warfare
- Military operations other than war – concept that encompass the use of military capabilities across the range of military operations short of war
- Military strategy – collective name for planning the conduct of warfare
- Proxy war – opposing powers using third parties as substitutes for fighting each other directly
- Unrestricted Warfare
- War amongst the people
- War cycles – the theory that wars happen in cycles
- War on drugs
- William S. Lind