Fifth-Generation Warfare
By Sense Receptor, May 26, 2024
“Fifth-Generation Warfare is…focused on psychological manipulation—psychological warfare, deception, social engineering…it is about changing the societal order in a massive way. So it is about the destruction of the state and the creation of a totally new social order.”
Assistant Professor and Director of the Security Studies Program at East Carolina University Dr. Armin Krishnan describes for Sarah Westall (@sarah_westall) the basics of “Fifth-Generation Warfare,” or warfare that is conducted primarily through non-kinetic military action.
“Fifth-Generation Warfare is very different from Clausewitzian warfare,” Krishnan tells Westall. (Military Strategy Magazine notes that Clausewitzian warfare, as described by Prussian General and military theorist Carl von Clausewitz, “occurs when states seek goals that clash with the goals of other states and choose to pursue them through violent means.)
“So the objective is no longer political, it’s no longer focused on the kinetic aspect of war, so it’s very much focused on psychological manipulation—psychological warfare, deception, social engineering, and these days, also what is called ‘cognitive warfare,'” Krishnan says. “So that also involves the manipulation of the brain, as well as the manipulation of culture. So you could affect the culture of a society by changing the composition of the society. So that would all fall into Fifth-Generation Warfare, which is fought in the human domain.”
Krishnan goes on to say:
“That is the domain of social relationships, of narratives, and of culture and values. So that’s where the main hostilities take place. And the objective is not to destroy the enemy armed forces, that’s no longer important. The military is no longer very important to Fifth Generation Warfare. What matters, really, is affecting the population in a way that is conducive to the goals of the belligerents. And what is very interesting about Fifth-Generation Warfare is that it is not apparent to many people that it’s actually happening. So that is a very big problem in terms of studying Fifth-Generation Warfare, because people are not aware that there is a war, and if they are aware that there is a war and they are under attack, they don’t know where the attack is coming from [or] who is responsible for it, and what is the ultimate goal of it.”
The Security Studies Director adds that Fifth-Generation Warfare “is about changing the societal order in a massive way. So it is about the destruction of the state and the creation of a totally new social order. And that order would no longer be political. So, it would be something that has been called ‘technocracy’ or ‘scientific dictatorship.’ So that would be a very radical change, and that would also mean that governments would no longer matter. So we would be moving towards a world government and some sort of federation of private interests and institutions that exercise control over populations.”
