Wishtank
Fifth Generation Warfare
by: Garrett Heaney and Justin Boland
About a month ago, Justin Boland, our Director of Research, introduced us to a phrase we had never heard before — Fifth Generation Warfare (5GW). In fact, he dedicated one of our Sister Sites (Skilluminati.com) to its research. When Justin started writing about tactical military manuals, it made me a little nervous. Knowing his heart is good, I decided it would be best if I contacted him for an interview. I think the resulting discussion is a good primer on Fifth Generation Warfare and the direction Skilluminati Research is moving.
Wishtank: There’s been some commentary around this question within the comment section of Skilluminati.com, but could you give us your definition of fifth generation warfare (5GW)? How might this differ from popular understandings of the phrase?
Justin Boland: “Solo warfare” would be the most concise. It’s slippery because both words are deceptive — “solo” implies that you’d never collaborate with other 5GW operatives, and “warfare” implies overt agression and violence.
I’m very much uncommitted to the 5GW orthodoxy, the framework is just another model to me and of course all models are toys. Toys for thinking and analysis, but toys just the same. I like to disassemble things to see how they work and ideas are no different.
In terms of the generations of war, I think the distinction between 3GW — traditional, nation versus nation warfare — and 4GW is very useful. 4GW is non-state “guerrilla” organizations going to war against nations, and it’s a great unsolved problem of our time. Nations all around the world are losing these wars right now, and the USA is no exception.
WT: It seems, to me at least, that you foresee something dangerous coming, and feel a personal responsibility to not only prepare for it, but to do everything you can to help others prepare for it as well. What do you see on the horizon that others might not?
JB: Well, let’s nail down the metaphor. The horizon is where something enters your view, and I’m not worried about the future at all. The future is over the horizon. I have no idea what the future will bring and I’m not really qualified to make predictions. I do see the present, though, and that’s what worries me.
Right now, we are dealing with a mass extinction of Earth species, exponentially rising toxic ocean pollution, and planet-wide bizarre health effects from the ambient levels of drugs and chemicals in our water and food. Global warming is not really a concern for me when you set it up against facts like that, I definitely think that’s a well-funded shiny distraction.
On a more Western level, our economy and our food supply are both in grave danger at the moment, although both of those are more of a managed crisis than a real problem. Reality is kind of grim right now.
WT: Do you fear it, and should I?
JB: No, fear is unhealthy and counterproductive.
For the same reasons I just listed, I also see immense opportunity. One of the most interesting 5GW concepts to me is the “Super-Empowered Individual” — someone who is brilliant enough to leverage technology, information and secrecy to acquire vast power that would have been unthinkable for a single human 100 years ago.
Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are homeboys
Richest man aliveThese are people like George Soros and Warren Buffett, and people like Osama bin Laden and Henry Okah. There’s a remarkable parallel between the elites who profit from globalism and the “terrorists” who attack it. They both represent a serious theat to our future, and they’re both great innovators and opportunists.
WT: Who are humanity’s greatest enemies? How susceptible are they to 5GW?
JB: I recently came across a great quote from an anonymous African refugee who observerd “Chaos is the worst kind of oppression because you don’t know who to fight against.” In my short lifetime of observation and reading history, it does look like we’re making incremental gains in the face of exponential problems.
Our greatest enemy is ourselves, but if you dig deeper than that cliche you start thinking different. I’m starting to wonder if our great enemy is specifically about 10,000 of us, recently referred to as “The Superclass” in Newsweek, who profit the most from global exploitation and Shock Doctrine economics.
“Globalization” in it’s current form is highly susceptible to 5GW, especially since it never figured out how to defend against 4GW. The infrastructure is highly profitable but also highly volatile and insecure. This is how men like Henry Okah do billions of damage. They’re not superhumans, they just have accurate information and specialized knowledge. It doesn’t take an army, just the right weapon in the right place.
WT: Speaking of weapons and armies, does 5GW employ violence as earlier generations of warfare have?
JB: Not if it’s any good. 5GW is sometimes referred to as “Invisible Warfare” because of the emphasis on out-thinking your opponent and operating in secret.
I’ve been fascinated to see the parallels between warfare and marketing over the past century. The languages of advertising and mass persuasion are often identical — penetration, projection, triggering and targeting. There’s been a shift in emphasis from mass marketing and world warfare, to segmented marketing and counterinsurgency, and now viral marketing and 5GW share a common set of concepts as well. You could also write an essay exploring the links between urban marketing and urban warfare in the past decade, but it would be a fairly boring essay.
If there is violence, it will be largely inadvertent, if not entirely unintentional. Precise hits on vulnerable infrastructure will be getting more common in the next decade. I have no idea if that will lead to smaller, more resilient communities or towards a more iron-clad and energy-efficient version of globalist capitalism.
My focus is on open-source projects, cheap, low-tech empowerent, asymmetrical system design and energy independence. I think it’s important to be in on this conversation early, because the core problem globalist capitalism is facing right now is 4th Generation Warfare — they can’t beat it and they can barely even fight it.
Right now there’s hundreds of billions of Homeland Security dollars being wasted. Liars in ties are selling security systems for an infrastructure that cannot be secured. I’m rooting for the little guy, but the little guy is more interested in TV and it’s not like I’m getting paid for this. I am hopeful that we’re on the verge on a radical change, but realistically, we’re probably just headed for bigger, more expensive fences… control systems that make the sheep feel secure but do nothing to protect against actual wolves.
WT: I know you approached this question when you stated: “I’m writing for an audience very much like myself: post-nationalism, post-racism, post-religion human beings with no respect for authority, national borders or even the laws of physics,” but what do your readers value? What does Skilluminati provide its audience?
JB: Immediately useful information and concepts. Once we get the basic language and theory out of the way, I want to anchor everything in hands-on tactical advice.
There is a solution to 4GW: communities. As John Robb puts it, ”Resilient Communities,” small sustainable and secure. You need to create and distribute your own energy, food and water — that’s the only real solution to 4GW: build smaller and build safer.
So it’s going to be a balance, and an uneven one at that. The focus will be on understanding and practicing “super-empowerment” and I’m also focused on the community, defense aspect. I think that’s a more beneficial path to take than emphasizing first-hand destructive techniques, although I’ll still be addressing those.
WT: What is the most important piece of literature on your mind today?
Sun TzuJB: Absolutely, Sun Tzu. I see so many overlaps and curious parallels with the Tao Te Ching now, so The Art of War is a very different book to me than when I read it back in 2000. I want to distill the rich fabric of solo warfare into precise operational guidelines — a System of Best Practices, which Dr. Quandary recently put me onto.
As exciting as new technology is, I don’t think there’s anything fundamentally new in modern warfare. The history of Western Military Theory is just the story of how white people gradually caught on to Sun Tzu. Now it’s 2008 and we’re 95% there.
WT: Tell us more about “System of Best Practices.”
JB: It was the Audible Hype material that gave me an appreciation for business books and marketing science. The Skilluminati project has gotten me into the precision and brevity of military manuals and documents. Both of them share a certain stripped-down flavor that appeals to me.
As much as I’m a counterculture advocate, I have to admit I don’t pay much attention to the counterculture. I value clarity and simplicity just as much as creativity, and most of what I do with this zoo of Websites is distilling information.
A System of Best Practices is a written document distilling the most effective and efficient methods for getting task X done. So far, we haven’t finished any of them — they’re living rulebooks that evolve with your technique. I use to chafe at the thought of documenting or streamlining my creative process but it’s a project that’s long overdue.
• More conversations between Boland and Heaney can be found via the links below:
Recommended Reading on 5GW
Militant Electronic Piracy by Kevin Flahery of Cryptogon.
Conspiracy of Dunces by Cosmo Garvin—a very entertaining and amazing piece of journalism, examining FBI counter-insurgency in the US.
Unto the Fifth Generation of War by Mark Safranski—a dense but valuable thinkpiece.
Security: Power to the People, by John Robb—outlines the future need for real security, through independent and empowered citizens.
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