Fourth Generation Warfare and The Clash of Civilizations

• This article looks at the nature of Fourth Generation Warfare (4GW), and how theories such as the ‘clash of civilizations’ impact upon this type of warfare. The ‘new’ ways in which wars are waged, and their success (or failure) is measured, are strongly influenced by political processes in turn driven by information and public perception. Wars can be won on the battlefield through the use of blunt military force, but ultimately lost through lack of appreciation of the effects of information and perception. The ‘clash’ theory plays very much to this new type of warfare, which wraps itself around notions of identity and culture, and the unbridgeable divisions that supposedly exist between different civilizations. To play this game in 4GW is to put the state actor, in the struggle of ideas and concepts, at an immediate disadvantage to the non-state ‘freedom fighter/insurgent /terrorist’ claiming to defend his land, people, faith.

Nyckelord

SOCIAL SCIENCES

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)