Fourth Generation Warfare

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"War," observed German general Karl von Clausewitz, "is the continuation of politics by other means." In today's world, however, military theorists use the term "fourth generation warfare" to describe the growing tendency for war itself to be waged "by other means." Terrorism is one example of 4GW, in which "war and peace blur and intermingle, decisive wars are fought with little or no armed conflict, and operations on the moral and mental battlegrounds determine victor and vanquished." Defense and the National Interest, a web site whose contributors are mostly current or former military officers, provides an overview and a number of thought-provoking essays about the social, political and technological changes that are driving this trend.