War/Generations
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From: The Defense Death Spiral by Franklin C. Spinney, see also Fourth-generation warfare.
Contents
1st Generation: Driven by Ideas
- Linear Tactics of Column and Line Regularity Driven by Culture & Technology
- Operational Art Intuitive Napoleonís use of Time & Space to Set Up Decisive Battle on His Terms
2nd Generation: Attrition Warfare, Driven by Technology
- Materialschlacht or Industrial War of Attrition - Civil War to WWI and Most of Allies in 2nd WWII (some exceptions like Patton)
- Linear Tactics - Regularity Driven by Technology (Indir. Arty, Mach. Guns, Barbed Wire Gave Advantage to Defense)
- Operational Art - Procure Success from Top Down: Move Around Defense to Destroy Adversary in a Battle of Encirclement.
- Space-Time Decisions Synchronized 1st by Molke, Based on Mobilization & RR (e.g., Schlieffen Plan)
3rd Generation: Maneuver Warfare, Driven by Ideas
- Infiltration Tactics (1918) - Blitzkrieg (Guderian) - USMC & OODA Loop (Boyd, 1980s)
- Nonlinear Tactics - Evolve Penetrations based on Ideas of Surfaces & Gaps, Recon Pull, Multiple Thrusts, Mission Tactics & Decentralized, all harmonized, by Ideas of Commanders Intent & Schwerpunct, etc.
- Operational Art - Dismember & Collapse Adversary by Penetrating Mind-Time-Space Frame of Reference (ie., Penetrate His Observation-Orientation-Decision-Action Loops, 1st Recognized by Boyd)
4th Generation: Irregular Warfare by State & Non-State Actors, Driven by Ideas
- Revolutionary (Lawrence - Mao - Giap ) - Ethnic/Tribal/Religious - Gang - Terrorist - etc
- Tactical Penetration Techniques Still Developing, But are Clearly Spreading w/ Unknown Implications.
- Operational Art - Collapse Adversary by Bypassing Army & Attacking Population, Culture, & Institution.
An example for the application of the 4th generation warfare against an enemy nation by attacking "Culture, & Institution" can be found in the paper: "From PSYOP to MindWar:The Psychology of Victory" by Paul E. Vallely, which was made for the 7th Psychological Operations Group, United States Army Reserve - co-authored by Michael Aquino. Like Zbigniew Brzezinski in Between Two Ages, the use of technology to alter the electromagnetic function of the bodies of whole populations is also shortly discussed.