Fifth-generation warfare is a propaganda and information warfare to accomplish strategic, operational, and tactical objectives, without measurable damage that the target can identify. Importantly in 5GW the target may not even know it has been attacked, thus the target has already lost that battle.
Quoting US Army Major Shannon Beebe, author David Axe wrote in Wired (magazine) in 2009, “fifth-generation as a vortex of violence, a free-for-all of surprise destruction motivated more by frustration than by any coherent plans for the future. 5GW is what happens when the world’s disaffected direct their desperation at the most obvious symbol of everything they lack.” He quotes Marine Lt Col Stanton Coerr, for Marine Corps Gazette: “5GW is… espoused by [the likes of] al Qaeda… with aspirations of setting up alternative political systems… they’re opportunists, intent only on destruction. But even pointless violence can have a perverse logic, for the sudden, irrational destruction undermines the idea that nations… are viable in the modern world.”
5GW is anchored in the global Islamic jihad espoused by Al Qaeda, Coerr writes. But that doesn’t mean that fifth-gen warriors necessarily are clearly ideological, with aspirations of setting up alternative political systems. They’re opportunists, intent only on destruction. But even seemingly pointless violence can have a perverse logic, for the sudden, irrational destruction undermines the idea that nations are viable in the modern world.
Information warfare can accomplish strategic, operational, and tactical objectives, while not doing measurable damage that the target can identify. An important aspect of 5GW may have the target not even know it’s under attack, thus the target has already lost that battle.
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