Via Coming Anarchy and Zenpundit.
- 4GW theorist, Col. Thomas X. Hammes, reviews counterinsurgency literature in this Washington Post article, focusing on how insurgency has evolved over time. I will be noting his recommendations. A sample of Hammes’ ideas:
But complicating our problem today is the fact that insurgencies are no longer the unified, hierarchical organizations that the Chinese, and later the Vietnamese, developed from the 1920s to the 1960s. Rather, they are loose coalitions unified only by the desire to drive out an outside power. All elements of the insurgency know that when the outside power is gone, they will fight a civil war to resolve their differences. Learning to adjust is the key to success in counterinsurgency. Conventional military weakness forces insurgents to be adaptable, so defeating them requires coherent, patient action — encompassing a range of political, economic, social and military activities — that can only be executed by a team drawn from all parts of government. You don’t outfight the insurgent. You outgovern him.
- Hammes’ own The Sling and the Stone is an excellent introduction to fourth-generation warfare. Here is the Coming Anarchy review, and the DNI review.
- An interesting short article by Larry Kahaner at HNN about small wars, and the US habit of losing them.
