ABSTRACT
Thomas Hammes’ paper on Fourth Generation Warfare (4GW) represents an interesting introduction to the Pentagon’s strategic vision of future wars dominated by high-tech, light forces controlled by tightly connected networks allowing US commanders to ‘see everything, decide rapidly and execute immediately’. As Hammes points out, this approach to warfare is really a culmination of a series of earlier concepts including the Revolution in Military Affairs. Hammes goes on to point out that, while initial results in Iraq and Afghanistan were promising at the start, the enemy refused to accept defeat and launched a protracted, political, emerging ‘Fourth Generation war’.
