The Handbook of 5GW: A Fifth Generation of War?

by Daniel H. Abbott

The successful application of the Fifth Generation of Warfare (5GW) is "indistinguishable from magic" (Rees 2009, following in the spirit of Clarke's Law, propounded by the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey) "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"). The Fifth-Generation warrior hides in the shadows, or in the static. So, then, how can analysts and researchers study and discuss 5GW?

Other questions also demand answers. What is the xGW framework, which many theorists use to describe 5GW? What alternatives to the xGW framework exist? What 5GWs have been observed? What are the source documents for the xGW framework? What is the universe of discourse that the xGW framework emerged from? Why bother trying to understand 5GW?

This handbook attempts to provide systematic answers to these questions in several major sections, each of which is written by many contributors. While this handbook records many different voices of 5GW research, it speaks with one voice on the need to understand 5GW, the fifth gradient of warfare.

This Kindle version includes all images and figures from the printed book; some images will not display well on grayscale devices.

Genres: War

275 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 12, 2010

Reviews

[Logan Streondj · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay book on different kinds of war.
First generation is where have troops in columns have it at each other with crude weapons.
Second generation is when have advanced high kill rate weapons.
Third generation is blitzkrieg tactics of avoiding the enemy strong points and going for their weak points.
Fourth generation is guerilla warfare and insurrections, which have popular support, or are spread through ideology.
Fifth generation is a psyop, or soft power changes from an unknown source that leads to the desired effect.

Though to be honest the author really beat the 5GW concept so much in so many ways it like is somewhat of a mess in the book. And even at the end isn't clearly defined that I could see.

Personally I think the COVID narrative is a good example of a psyop or 5GW which killed tens of millions by getting them to inject slowkill agents.

[Dhruv · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pseudo-intellectual academic drivel

I have read and loved Bill Lind's classic Maneuver Warfare Handbook and the 4th Generation Warfare Handbook. They are useful because they offer practical suggestions for how to use certain principles, backed up by historical studies.

This work is not like that all. It seems to have been written by a bunch of humanities majors who have never really seen field operations or led a group. They get lost between '-isms' and '-zations,' using pseudo-intellectual ideas to disguise their lack of actual content.

I'm giving it two stars only because there was one intriguing idea in the whole book - that 5GW might strike deeper into the enemy's OODA loop by changing the context of certain actions. Otherwise it's just pointless speculation.

Waste of time and money - avoid reading.

[Terry Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an anthology of short essays that explore the theory of warfare and the associated elements of doctrine associated with each level of warfare the authors propose as "generational." this volume expresses 5GW theory as it is now known and discussed. In the Introduction, the author states, 5GW is not new. It is not revolutionary. It is not an invention. It is part of the human experience, and warfighters have always been familiar with it. It is time that academics, researchers, and analysts knew about it as well.
According to the xGW framework, warfare exists along a gradient of violence, which is more focused on one end and more diffused on another. Militant forces that better focus their violence can overcome less-focused militant forces many times their size. At the fifth gradient of warfare (5GW), violence is so diffuse that only a single murder or outrage may separate it from politics.
There is a total of 248 reading pages, and each chapter/essay is 3 to 5 pages - there are about 40 short essays that cover working definitions of generational warfare, the OODA loop, how this might apply to COIN and a number of case studies that the authors use to support the thesis of generational warfare. I highly recommend this book as an essential desk reference, one that you might pair with your Paret and Howard translation of On War, or Meads, Makers of Modern Strategy. Should you decide to purchase this book, I suggest you also consider reading the New Maneuver Warfare Handbook, by William S. Lind.

[Rajiv Chopra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd like to give this book 5 stars but will content myself with 4.

I gained a lot of insight from this book. It is scary when you think of the trajectory that war is taking. Most of us do not follow the gradients of war, and still think of it as something that is fought in the physical plane - between states.

4GW has taken it to the realm of non-state actors, and 5GW takes it further, to the point when the entity being attacked is not even aware of the aggression.

So, why the 4-stars and not the 5?
For one, there is too much repetition. I would have preferred to have one core chapter, and then for the other writes to build upon this.

Second, the formatting on the Kindle is bad, and makes for some difficult reading.

Still it is enlightening.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

OH man...... a lot to think about.