Fourth-generation warfare is about super-empowered small groups of like-minded individuals shaping the future of entire peoples and nations. Special forces, intelligence operatives, banking regulators, irregular forces, non-state actors. Its the blurring of the lines between kinetic military conflict and propaganda and financial warfare and insurgency. Its the obsolescence of the main battle tank and the rise of the drone. Eastern Ukraine, Yemen. Fourth-generation politics, I think, is about the power of hyper-targeted digital advertising with fast-twitch optimization and tight feedback loops. Its the mix of church sermons with preroll ads and hyper-targeted Newsfeed advertising. Its GOTV informed by direct mail databases, managed by real-time updating apps on workers phones. Politics will never be the same. For many of the same reasons that war and international relations will never be the same. Both transformations are enabled by the newly connected nature of the world. Both will shape our experiences for a generation to come. Whoever does this right in domestic politics in 2016 will win the White House. Whoever does this right globally will win at least an oceans worth of dominance for a generation. Its amazing how the world changes.
Posted on: Wed, 14 May 2014 16:39:22 +0000
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