5GW Theory Timeline

Summary:

[No publication date given or found; listed date is an approximation based on the date of a blog post first-reference of "On 'Fifth Generation' Warfare?"]

The world is composed of a psychological terrain that has less and less to do with topography or national boundaries.

This is a pdf article which introduces 4 elements within our modern world that will bear on the development of 5GW, followed by 3 suggestions for defending against 5GW.

4 Elements promoting the shift to 5GW and/or describing 5GW:

• Technological advances which may permit very small groups or individuals to cause major effects upon the systems, mostly negative. (I.e., superempowerment defined through access to technology.)
• Cultural identities and cultures are weakening and may receive competition from idiosyncratic identities or individualistic ideologies. Thus, certain individuals may "see themselves and their identities writ large across the fabric of humanity and history itself."
• Targeted groups or peoples will be turned against themselves by the 5GW attacker. Specific changes in culture and ideology are not the primary goal, however; rather, such reactions within the target are "gratifying to the inside psychology of the initiating group." The subsequent results leading from reactionary responses are the primary goal.
• Factionalism will make identifying friend and foe very difficult. Reactionary factions may seek to benefit from the upheaval, thus may cause more chaos and conflict even if they are not behind the 5GW attack.

3 Suggested defensive initiatives:

• Improved civic skills for managing the chaos. Those who would feed off the quick-changing conditions need to be redirected, their activities channeled. Media will be key.
• Greater networking, or inter-connection, within a society, would help identify those seeking to benefit from whatever chaos is occurring. (Those who would benefit, by latching on to the dynamics of the chaos, may not be the original initiators of the chaos.) Those who would benefit are not invisible nor particularly hidden, since they generally will come from the middle- and upper-middle classes with access to the tools for effecting large changes within a society.
• Streamline infrastructure and internal systems so that they become less available as potential targets and/or potential weapons. "Remove opportunities" rather than focusing only on the individuals within the society.

Concluding thoughts/summary within the article: Superempowerment will make possible and more likely the attempt to write one's own identity large over the society/cultural system, in particular with regard to those who are anti-social or indeed are sociopaths.