With The Handbook of 5GW at the publisher, and the beginning of the Afghanistan 2050 Roundtable looming, what better time to share this document that Curtis Gale Weeks put together on the intellectual history of 5GW/xGW theory:
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With The Handbook of 5GW at the publisher, and the beginning of the Afghanistan 2050 Roundtable looming, what better time to share this document that Curtis Gale Weeks put together on the intellectual history of 5GW/xGW theory:
Props to my friend Curtis Gale Weeks, whose blog Phatic Communion is once against active. Here are some recent posts:
I especially like his blog-within-a-blog, Musing 5GW.
Hopefully 5GW: A Fifth Generation of War will make at least the splash as What Every Member of the Trade Community Should Know About: Distinguishing Bolts from Screws [PDF].

The Third Writer’s Draft of our edited volume on 5GW was sent out yesterday. If you should have received a copy, but didn’t, email me or comment below. At least one email address bounced back already.
The writer’s copy of The Handbook of 5GW: A 5th Generation of War? is in limited circulation among the handbook’s contributors, so it’s a good time to highlight an excellent point by Arherring: “XGW and Torture.”
Here’s an excerpt:
4GW Torture:
4GW – Fourth gradient doctrines are based upon the principle of the attainment of a functional invulnerability that prevents the opponent from being able to orient upon a threat and creates a perception that saps the ability of the opponent to function effectively.
The use of torture at the fourth gradient is premised upon the creation of a sense of dread of the unknown in the minds of the opponent. Torture becomes a method not just of gathering information, but a weapon of fear. Used as an extreme, the opponent may have a fear of capture by the 4GW actor that prevents the opponent from orienting effectively, always considering most immediately the need to be able to escape rather than the most immediate method to execute their own doctrine. The morality of the use of torture at this gradient is ignored in the necessity of its utility to inspire fear.
5GW Torture:
5GW – Fifth gradient doctrines are based upon the principle of manipulation of the context of the observations of an opponent in order to achieve a specific effect.
Torture at the fifth gradient takes on a different aspect from the use of torture at 0GW and 4GW. At those gradients the negative moral aspect of torture is either irrelevant or used to give torture utility. For 5GW the moral aspect of torture is the most important aspect. In most (if not all cases) 5GW is a warfare of competing ideas and ideals. At the fifth gradient the least desirable outcome is to have your ideology linked to an overwhelmingly negative meme like torture either through your own actions, or by the manipulation of an opponent that links torture to your ideology.
A 5GW force is typically one that is too weak to win a competition of ideas and ideals, so I think Arherring’s descriptions of torture in 5GW are besides the point. In a 5GW, the torture of a single person may be the only violence that is inflicted as part of a subtle, winning campaign. Likewise, a 4GW campaign may be built on broadcasting an attractive ideology. Fear may be besides the point.
Still, I like the idea of using xGW as a way to understand torture. I also like the way Arherring lumps together “torture and “enhnaced interrogation techniques.” The difference between them is a legal fiction. You either win or you don’t. That is, you either lose or you don’t.
A 5GW-informed boardgame?
Mexico as a failed state a factor in the 2012 Presidential Election?
The things you learn from the blogosphere!
I’m getting excited about the volume I’m editing, titled 5GW: The Fifth Generation of War? I read David Axe (blogger @ War is Boring, and author of War Bots)’s latest draft of his chapter. Very cool.
In celebration of the upcoming volume, 5GW: The Fifth Generation of War?, I wanted to share a Google Book Search preview of my previous work, Revolutionary Strategies in Early Christianity.
Thanks to W.F. Zimmerman of Nimble Books for pointing me to the Google Book Search Preview Wizard!
5GW: The Fifth Generation of War? will be an edited volume of perspectives on “5GW,” one of the most controversial subjects in defense and security studies. 5GW: The Fifth Generation of War? will be published by Nimble Books, which is currently overseeing the release of the “Age of Obama” series of works associated with the inauguration of our 44th President. (Books in the “Age of Obama” series include A Reporter’s Journey with Clinton, McCain and Obama in The Making of the President, 2008, Obama Does Globalization, and Persuader in Chief: Global Opinion and Public Diplomacy in the Age of Obama. )
5GW: The Fifth Generation of War? will be on sale by June.
The provisional Table of Contents is as follows:
Additional authors who have expressed interest in submitting chapters include:
NImble Books has also published my monography, Revolutionary Strategies in Early Christianity, and the edited volume of the John Boyd Roundtable (which contains a forward by Thomas Barnett, of Great Powers fame).
The call for chapters came out three weeks ago, the provisional contributors was announced two weeks ago, and a request for chapter titles came out last week.
The response has been overwhelming.
5GW: The Fifth Generation of War? will be an edited volume of perspectives on “5GW,” one of the most controversial subjects in defense and security studies. 5GW: The Fifth Generation of War? will be published by Nimble Books, which is currently overseeing the release of the “Age of Obama” series of works associated with the inauguration of our 44th President. 5GW: The Fifth Generation of War? should be on sale by June.
The provisional contributor list, along with provisional titles, is as follows:
As editor, I am now calling on all those interested in writing a chapter for the edited volume, 5GW: The Fifth Generation of War, to submit a first or introductory paragraph. This one-paragraph-long introduction is provisional. It should serve to organize thoughts, and provide a dramatic or logical (or both) preview for the full chapter.
Here is the first paragraph for my chapter, “5GW: The Fifth Gradient of War”:
We control and improve war. We do this by making war more psychological, burrowing into your enemy’s mind and depriving him of a foe he can see. We do this by making more war peaceful, moving from killing tens of thousands in battle to one or two in war. We do this by defining what we mean by ‘enemy,’ no longer ‘he who wishes us harm’ but ‘he who does not care that we exist.’ We do this by fighting for our enemy, so that he can live, he can rule, he can fight, and he can believe in terms that he does not realize have been dictated by us.
Please post your first paragraphs below as a comment, or else email them to me, at dan@tdaxp.com.
In celebration of Mike Tanji’s new edited volume, Threats in the Age of Obama (out very soon), I wanted to share the cover art:
My chapter in the volume deals with 5GW, which is also the theme of an upcoming Nimble edition on 5GW. In celebration both of the chapter and the books, I share two amazing 5GW-themed pieces from Joseph Fouche: “Is 5GW Necessary for a Functioning Republic?” and “Neglected Strategists.”
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