Intelligent Fourth Generation Entities

= non-state actors that can assume state-like functions, thanks to "Fourth Generation" warfare strategies

Description

Bill Lind:

"In the Great Depression of the 1930s, states’ economic failure brought governments and even systems of government, including democracy, into question. In both Europe and the United States, Communism and Fascism gained certain popularity because in the Soviet Union, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, everyone had a job. But the state itself was not challenged, because there was no alternative to the state.

Now, there is. Intelligent Fourth Generation entities, ranging from some drug gangs through organizations such as Hezbollah, are competing directly with the state for people’s primary loyalty. If those Fourth Generation entities can provide basic services, including food, when the state can no longer do so, they will gain the legitimacy that state is losing. In Fourth Generation war, that is a bigger win than any potential military victory." (http://www.d-n-i.net/dni/2008/08/21/on-war-272-a-deeper-global-crisis/)

More Information

Commentary by John Robb at http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2008/09/journal-why-com.html