ABSTRACT
A new kind of war is being waged in various parts of the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and everywhere around the world today. 1 Some of the main protagonists are those who have come to be designated as first-, second-, and third-generation street gangs. In this war, gangs are not sending conventional military units across national borders or building an industrial capability in an attempt to “filch some province” from some country. 2 These nonstate actors are more interested in commercial profit and controlling territory (that is, turf) to allow maximum freedom of movement and action. That freedom within countries and across national frontiers ensures commercial market share and revenues as well as secure bases for market expansion. Rather than trying to depose government in a major strike (golpe or coup), as some insurgents have attempted, gangs take control of turf one street or neighborhood at a time (coup d’ street). In addition to drug smuggling, these gangs are known to have expanded their activities to smuggling people, body parts, weapons, and cars, along with associated murder, kidnapping, and robbery; home and community invasion; and other lucrative societal destabilization activities. What makes all of this into a new kind of war–Post-Modern War–is that the security and sovereignty of affected countries is being impinged every day, and gangs’ illicit commercial motives are, in fact, becoming an ominous political agenda. 3
