4GW promotional trailer

William S Lind is a conservative American writer, most known for promoting the theory of “Fourth Generation Warfare”, known as 4GW to the enthusiasts. Lind was also one of the people developing said theory back in 1989. This short e-pamphlet (published by the mysterious “Finnish” press Castalia House) contains a lecture by Lind at Quantico, the main base of the US Marine Corps. While the lecture sounds interesting, it's very short and actually says very little about 4GW. I suspect Castalia published it as a “teaser”, since the same press also offers other books on the Fourth Generation concept.

Having read the lecture, I wonder (as do many others) what the difference is supposed to be between 4GW and a perfectly normal insurgency? My guess is that normal insurgents want to topple the government and form a government of their own and/or carve out a new nation-state on territory presently controlled by somebody else. Their tactics differ from those of the regular military, but their goals are similar (modern state power). By contrast, 4GW fighters don't just use different tactics, even their goals are different. They might not even be political in the strict sense.

In short, 4GW is Lind's way of describing Arnold Toynbee's “war-bands” of the “external proletariat”. Perhaps the “internal” proletariat can also take recourse to 4GW? If that's what he means, I think he is (unfortunately!) on to something. Al-Qaeda, ISIS, the Mexican Drug War or the current mess in Libyan and Afghanistan might indeed be the wave of the future as more nations turn into “failed states”. Lind's lecture doesn't contain any solutions, and is actually quite pessimistic: militant Islam can be defensively contained but not offensively challenged, and the last and best hope for Western man is to create a survivalist Christian haven in some far off corner of the globe. Lind is also highly critical of the Marines, arguing that they haven't even transitioned from second to third generation warfare, making them ill equipped to meet the challenge of fourth generation conflict. Yes, this guy lectured at Quantico!

Despite the teaser trailer element, I will nevertheless give “The Four Generations of Modern War” three stars. Stay tuned for more...