Defense and the National Interest

By William S. Lind
January 6, 2009
If we look around the world at the prospects for Fourth Generation entities, what does the new year reveal? Regrettably, they seem to face a rosy future.
The Israeli assault on Hamas in Gaza will succeed physically, prove a mixed bag mentally and fail on the moral level of war. [...]

From today’s Times of London:
The West is indirectly funding the insurgency in Afghanistan thanks to a system of payoffs to Taleban commanders who charge protection money to allow convoys of military supplies to reach NATO bases in the south of the country.
In case it’s slipped your memory, the strategy of the current Administration, and the [...]

by William S. Lind
3 December 2008
Applying operational art in Fourth Generation war is so difficult it is hard to point to many successful examples of it. The recent assaults in Bombay are among the few and also among the best, bordering on brilliant. We may regret brilliance on the part of our opponents, [...]

William S. Lind
November 3, 2008
In standard military theory, a culminating point is where an offensive runs out of gas. The troops are exhausted; vehicles urgently require maintenance; fuel, ammo and rations are all short. No matter how alluring the potential results of continuing the offensive, the attacker has to take a break. Often, a culminating [...]

by William S. Lind
October 28, 2008
While the world’s eyes are fixed on the American election coming up soon, another election with equal importance for America’s future crawled onto the calendar over the past weekend (don’t expect a monarchist to think highly of elections). Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni gave up her efforts to form [...]

By William S. Lind
October 20, 2008
I have suggested in previous columns that the al Qaeda model of 4GW may be failing for inherent reasons, i.e. for reasons it cannot fix. “Tom Rick’s Inbox” in the October 19 Washington Post offers some confirmation of that assessment. Ricks writes:
Where did al Qaeda in Iraq go [...]

By William S. Lind
October 15, 2008
As the military situation in Afghanistan deteriorates, there may be at least the possibility of better news on the political front. Nightwatch for October 7 reported that
Multiple news services have reported meetings hosted by Saudi Arabian King Abdallah between representatives of the Kabul government and the Taliban. Both [...]

Jay Soloman and Siobhan Gorman have an interesting piece in today’s WSJ entitled, “Financial Crisis May Diminish American Sway.”  Your first reaction might be “Ya think?”  followed by “What can we do about it?”
I think a better reaction might be “So what?”  Being the world’s only remaining superpower — and $3.75 — will get you [...]

A greatly expanded version (95 pp. / 2.5 MB PDF) is now available from our 4GW Manuals page.
Written by the 4GW Seminar at Quantico, this edition also includes Red Team games and potential solutions to problems.
As an aside, and perhaps someone with experience could comment, but after editing this manual, I feel like I’m gaining [...]

By William S. Lind
September 30, 2008
One way to look at the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is to see them as one war with two fronts.  Germany fought two-front wars twice in the 20th century, and it was almost able to prevail because it had the advantage of interior lines.  The German Army could quickly [...]