ABSTRACT
The idea of 4GW has been strongly and deservedly criticized. But like the thesis of the so-called Revolution in Military Affairs and the topic of asymmetric warfare of the 1990s, 4GW serves as a fruitful icon for our time. It highlights what needs highlighting in the current era, it stimulates debate, and while describing familiar territory it also points at new features in the terrain, it captures the problems we currently face, and it poses questions that need answering, such as the one above: Can NATO cope with 4GW? This is not a trivial question. Indeed, it touches the health and very relevance of NATO as an institution, an institution often described as bureaucratic, averse to change, and manifestly unable to make headway in improving its capabilities to cater for security challenges around its borders, let alone those at 10,000 kilometers away from Brussels.
