Fourth generation warfare has often involved an insurgent group or other violent non-state actor trying to implement their own government or reestablish an old government over the current ruling power. However, a fourth generation war is most successful (from the underdog’s viewpoint) when the non-state entity does not attempt, at least in the short term, to impose its own rule, but tries simply to disorganize and delegitimize the state in which the warfare takes place. The aim is to force the state adversary to expend manpower and money in an attempt to establish order, ideally in such a highhanded way that it merely increases disorder, until the state surrenders or withdraws. Fourth generation warfare attempts to change the minds of enemy policymakers directly. But this change is not to be achieved through the traditional first through third-generation objective of destroying the enemy’s armed forces and the capacity to regenerate them. The book is a comprehensive and authentic living record of the whole gamut of 4 generation warfare.
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