5GW Theory Timeline

Summary:

A consideration of two blog posts on tdaxp, followed by an alternative speculation of what will constitute fifth-generation warfare.

Emergent communities, or emergent networks, may be examples of 5GW organization, particularly since these groups may form around an idea or cause but without having any actual (or at least formal) channels used for communication and coordination. This may leave them formless although their primary targets may continue to "see" a coherent operation/organization behind the attacks -- thus jumping to conclusions about who is the attacker.

The movie The Usual Suspects is referenced: Keyser Söze;

“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” Could the opposite be true? Could the greatest trick a terrorist movement ever pull is convincing the world that it did exist? I could see how warring on this myth (effectively a figment of the paranoid imagination) to the ends of the earth could definitely bankrupt a state.