Fourth-generation warfare  

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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