Warfare Generations

Definition of War
• Clauswitz- “WAR IS NOTHING BUT A DUEL ON AN
EXTENSIVE SCALE…WAR THEREFORE IS AN ACT OF
VIOLENCE INTENDED TO COMPEL OUR OPPONENT
TO FULFIL OUR WILL”
• Wallace (1968) considers war to be ‘the sanctioned
use of lethal weapons by members of one society
against members of another. It is carried out by
trained persons working in teams that are directed
by a separate policy-making group and supported
in various ways by the non-combatant population
 Nature of War
• Warfare, in general, takes place on multiple levels.
• On the physical level, it is a test of firepower,
weapons technology, troop strength, and logistics.
• At the psychological level, it involves intangibles
such as morale, leadership, and courage.
• At the analytical level, it challenges the ability of
commanders to assess complex battlefield
situations, make effective decisions, and formulate
tactically superior plans to carry out those
decisions.
 Friction
• Friction is the phenomenon that, in the words
of the manual, “makes the simple difficult and
the difficult seemingly impossible.”
• The most obvious source of friction is the
enemy, but it can also result from natural
forces such as the terrain or the weather,
internal forces such a lack of planning or
coordination, or even mere chance.
 Uncertainty
• Uncertainty is the atmosphere in which “all
actions in war take place”—the so-called fog
of war. Uncertainty about environmental
factors and about the opponent’s intentions
and capabilities clouds decision makers’
judgment, prohibiting the optimal deployment
of resources.
 Fluidity
• Fluidity describes the battlefield situation in
which each event “merges with those that precede
and follow it—shaped by the former and shaping
the conditions of the latter—creating a continuous,
fluctuating flow of activity replete with fleeting
opportunities and unforeseen events.” Combatants
must constantly adapt to these changing conditions
and seek to actively shape emerging events. There
are few breaks in the action or opportunities for
decisions to be made sequentially.
 Disorder
• Disorder implies a competitive situation that
deteriorates as time progresses.
• Disorder, “In an environment of friction,
uncertainty, and fluidity,” according to the
Marines’ manual, “plans will go awry,
instructions and information will be unclear
and misinterpreted, communications will fail,
and mistakes and unforeseen events be
commonplace.”
 TYPES OF WAR

• High intensity conflicts and low intensity

conflicts
• Total war, limited war
• International war, civil war
 Types
Wright (1942; 1965) has developed a typology of war
which distinguishes among four categories:
• the civil war, which takes place within the boundaries
of a sovereign nation
• the balance of power war, in which members of a
State system are at war among themselves
• the defensive war, which acts to guard a civilization
against the intrusions of an alien culture
• the imperial war, in which one civilization attempts to
expand at the expense of another
 Why Wars
Levels of Analysis
Individual level
• Wars are caused by factors that can be linked to specific
individuals or group of individuals
Domestic/national level
•  Wars are caused by factors that are state-specific (e.g.
political system, economic system, resources, populations
etc.)
Systemic level
•  Wars are caused by factors that exist at the international
level
•  Polarity, anarchy, system of alliances
‘Human nature’ explanations of war
• “Wars result from selfishness, from misdirected aggressive
impulses, from stupidity. Other causes are secondary…”
(Waltz, 2001, pg. 30)
• Need for security
‘Frustration’ explanations of war
• aggression is a result of frustration
• Displacement
‘misperception’ explanations of war
• decisions to go to war are often the result of misperception,
misunderstanding,
• miscalculation and errors of judgment
 First Generation Warfare

• First-generation warfare refers to a style of warfare that was prevalent

during the 19th and early 20th centuries
• It was Characterized by:,
 Large
 Standing Armies
 Linear Tactics
 Soldiers Arranged In Long Lines,
 Firing Volleys Of Musket Fire At Each Other.
 Cavalry Charges
• Examples
Napoleonic Wars
English Civil war
1857 War of Independence
 First Generation Warfare

• First generation warfare phase began at 1648, the peace of

Westphalia convention year, a convention which ended a 30 years
of war that consists what we know now as Germany.
• The Westphalia convention is also the beginning of usage of term
Nation-State
• with it is conditions in the European affairs, replacing communal
and tribal organizations as war-making entities
 Second Generation Warfare

• Second-generation warfare is a term used to describe a style of

warfare that emerged in the early 20th century
• Characterized by :,
FirePower
 Movement
Attrition
Officers Commanding Units
•Example
WWI
 Attrition
• a military strategy consisting of belligerent
attempts to win a war by wearing down the
enemy to the point of collapse through
continuous losses in personnel, materiel, and
morale
• Clausewitz called it the exhaustion of the
adversary
 Second Generation Warfare

• The idea of the second generation of the warfare first emerged

after the industrial
revolution which offered a various range of firepower options
• The second generation warfare was developed in the mid of the
nineteenth century due to the emergence of steam technologies
and the methods of mass production
• and as a response for the wide range of the development of the
rifled barrel, guns and indirect fire
• The second generation warfare depended on the massive fire
power and troops to occupy the enemies land as it was an
essential condition to victory at that time
 Third Generation Warfare
• The concept was developed by the Germans in 1918
• Characterized by:-
Maneuver
Qualitative Maneuver over quantitative fire

•Example
WW-II
Korean War
 3rd Generation Warfare

• The third generation warfare emerged due to the increase of the

fire power
• the concept was developed the Germans in 1918
• It was developed as the Germans were aware that one of the
reasons for the defeat in World War 1 was because of their weak
industrial base, thus they had to develop new tactics to protect
themselves, and they managed to develop the concept of
operational freedom
• The third generation tactics was maneuver in it is principle rather
than the attrition principle of the second generation warfare
• The maneuver principle is based on qualitative maneuver over
quantitative fire, it was also known as the blitzkrieg
 Manouver Warfare
• Maneuver warfare represents—in the words of the United
States Marine Corps doctrinal manual, Warfighting—“a
state of mind bent on shattering the enemy morally and
physically by paralyzing and confounding him, by avoiding
his strength, by quickly and aggressively ploiting his
vulnerabilities, and by striking him in a way that will hurt
him most.”
• Its ultimate aim is not to destroy the adversary’s forces but
to render them unable to fight as an effective, coordinated
whole. For example, instead of attacking enemy defense
positions, maneuver warfare practitioners bypass those
positions, capture the enemy’s command-and-control
center in the rear, and cut off supply lines.
• Surprise can be achieved by using one of three
approaches: stealth, ambiguity, or deception.
• Ambiguity, “to act in such a way that the
enemy does not know what to expect,”
• Deception, “to convince the enemy that we
are going to do something other than what we
are really going to do,”
• Maneuver is the employment of forces in the operational
area through movement in combination with fires to
achieve a position of advantage in respect to the enemy .
• The forms of maneuver are envelopment, flank
attack, frontal attack, infiltration,
penetration, and turning movement
• Examples:
– World War 2,
– Korean War,
– the war in Afghanistan and the Iraq war
 Fourth Generation Warfare

• Fourth generation warfare (4GW) is a concept that describes the evolving nature of
warfare in the modern world, where the traditional distinctions between civilian and
military, combatant and non-combatant, and state and non-state actors are blurred
• The term 4GW was first coined by American military strategist William S. Lind in the
1980s
• This is characterized by
Decentralization
 Terrorist groups
Insurgents
Psychological warfare including media manipulation and propaganda
Use of irregular tactics such as guerrilla warfare
Blur Boundaries between friends and foes
Nation states lose it is monopoly in controlling war
Example
Syrian Civil War
Read this - https://tribune.com.pk/story/2425926/anthology-of-warfare-4th-generation
 4th Generation Warfare

• The fourth generation warfare ideas started to have a great importance

after the September 11th attacks on the United States, followed by the
Bali, London, Madrid and Bombay attacks, which made the traditional
use of the armed forces useless in preventing those attacks
• The fourth generation warfare came as indirect result of the rapid
development in the social, economic, political and technological
transformation caused by the globalization
• Non-State Actors (NSAs) opposed to colonising/occupying powers
could not withstand the state’s combat power. So, they resorted to the
tactics of propaganda, movement-building, secrecy, terror, etc to
overcome the technological gap with state forces.
• 4GW shares much in common with ‘asymmetric warfare’ and ‘LIC’ —
low-intensity conflict (insurgency and guerrilla war). Generally, the
weaker/NSA side started the conflict.
There are three main ideas that affected the
emergence of the fourth generation warfare
• The first idea is that the nation states lose it is
monopoly in controlling war
• The second idea is that the new face of conflict
is changing into cultural conflict that is
identified by religion and ideology
• The third idea concerns with the concept of
multiculturalism
 Fifth Generation warfare

• War of information and perception

• Targets existing cognitive biases of individuals and organizations
• Creates new cognitive biases (social engineering)
• Is different from classical warfare for the following reasons:
– Focuses on the individual observer / decision maker
– Is difficult or impossible to attribute
– Nature of the attack is concealed
– Social media tools particularly Facebook, WhatsApp,
Instagram and Twitter etc. have become instruments of the
fifth generation warfare. Fake news, misleading reports and
falsified propaganda are spread through these modern media
tools.
• https://tribune.com.pk/story/2466154/blind-
eye-to-indias-disinformation-
empire#:~:text=One%20such%20entity%20is
%20the,it%20as%20a%20failed%20state.
Future Trends in warfare
• Decline of interstate wars and rise in civil wars (or new
wars)
• Political grievances
• Economic opportunities
• Weak governance
• Wars being linked with dictatorships authoritarian
states
• Samuel Huntington ideas on the prospects of wars
between civilizations
• Ethnic wars and ideas of ‘ethnic cleansing
 Manouver Warfare
• Maneuver warfare represents—in the words of the United States Marine
Corps doctrinal manual, Warfighting—“a state of mind bent on shattering
the enemy morally and physically by paralyzing and confounding him, by
avoiding his strength, by quickly and aggressively ploiting his vulnerabilities,
and by striking him in a way that will hurt him most.”
• Its ultimate aim is not to destroy the adversary’s forces but to render them
unable to fight as an effective, coordinated whole. For example, instead of
attacking enemy defense positions, maneuver warfare practitioners bypass
those positions, capture the enemy’s command-and-control center in the
rear, and cut off supply lines.
• Surprise can be achieved by using one of three approaches: stealth,
ambiguity, or deception.
• Ambiguity, “to act in such a way that the enemy does not know what to
expect,”
• Deception, “to convince the enemy that we are going to do something
other than what we are really going to do,”